


Imagine Reader/Sebastian

by maristb



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:46:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 28
Words: 54,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26555314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maristb/pseuds/maristb
Summary: Here you are, moving to Stardew Valley, to the old farm of your childhood, where you used to have a great time with your eleven cousins and your beloved grandfather. But why do these good old times seem to be so blur now? Your life seems to have gone all the way down.But... here you are now, and all the memories are back. Also, the memories of those two beloved friends, a used-to-be ginger grumpy boy and a sportsy brunette.Oh my, there is also a Wizard, spirits of the forest and slimes?! And a mission to help the people from the town??What are you getting into?
Relationships: Abigail/Sebastian (Stardew Valley), Alex (Stardew Valley)/Reader, Elliott/Leah (Stardew Valley), Penny/Sam (Stardew Valley), Sam (Stardew Valley)/Reader, Sebastian (Stardew Valley)/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

The slow pace of the bus makes you feel dizzy. You look outside and see the most lively and green landscape you had ever seen, and along with it you feel the memories of old times coming to your mind. 

Those days in the farm seem so far away now, playing with animals along your cousins, running around the crops, swimming in the rivers and lakes, fishing... and in the late evening sitting by a fire with your grandpa to hear stories about the valley.

Stardew. Stardew Valley, a place cherished in your memories.

You never imagined you would be going back to that valley to live in the farm from your childhood, taking with you just a small luggage. You are tired, sad and broke. Your wrists still hurt, a gift from hours typing in a computer of Joja corporation.

You don't know how everything went so wrong. As a kid you always wanted to be a veterinarian or maybe a biologist, but you ended up in that corporative job, making thousands of reports that seemed the same one and attending meetings to talk about nothing. If you told yourself, that bright kid full of hope and wonder, that you would grow up to become such a bitter adult, you wouldn't have believed it then.

At least you had the courage to leave.

You hold tight in your hands the letter from your grandfather, attached to it as a last light of hope that moving to Paradise farm can help you start new.

The bus stops and the driver asks you if you need help with your baggage, but you decline. You didn't bring much.

You stand beside the bus sign and feel the soft breeze from the valley, listening to the birds chirp. Those memories seem more alive inside you.

"Hey! You arrived!"

A friendly call takes you out of your thoughts as a ginger woman comes towards you with the nicest of smiles.

"I was worried that the bus would be delayed but you are just in time!" she says, taking your baggage from off your hands before you can say anything. "I am Robin, the town's capenter, you must be the new farmer! Lewis asked me to pick you up!"

"Hi..." you stutter, shaking her hand." I am y/n."

"You caused quite a commotion here at Pelican. It is not everyday we receive a new villager, a new farmer, then!" she says, taking your luggage to a small red pick up truck parked beside the bus stop.

"Actually... I am not a farmer. I am just going to live in the farm." you say a little unease about how friendly she is. You are used to the apathic city people.

"Well, I guess living at Paradise makes you a farmer now." She says a giggles.

As you take a dirt road, she continues to speak to you cheerfully.

"I just came by truck because I thought you would be bringing much more stuff. Your farm is actually very close."

"I... I don't own much." you reply. "WHAT THE ...!?"

When she parks by the gates your wonderful memories and hopes connected to Paradise farm seem to shatter. The landscape is taken by weeds and all the structures you remember seem to have aged twice the time you had been away. Trees had outgrown the charming paths or rock in which you and your cousins used to race each other, the little ponds where you used to fish were surrounded by twigs and bushes of weeds. The sight of the land was a mix of leaves, twigs and boulders.

"Not much of a Paradise anymore, hun? But I guess with a little effort you can bring it back to it's bright." Robin says as she notices the disappointment in your face.

"I guess..." you say, dispirited.

She takes you to the old cottage and the view is not much better. The wood seems a little rotten and cracked, you are afraid of what you might meet inside.

"Y/n! I haven't seen you since you were this little!" an elder man comes out of the cabin and waves at you.

You think you remember him. Probably one of your grandfather's friends. He had many, unlike you.

"Oh, I guess you were too little to remember me. I am Lewis, Pelican Town's Mayor. You know, your granpa and I used to be friends since we were very young and this farm was full of coops, animals, fruit trees..."

Robins ahams to him to call his attention to your discomfort about the current situation of the farm.

"Oh... I mean... Sure you will do a good work of taking care of your grandfather's property. Anyway, I am here to welcome you and say that whatever you need, you can call me and that If you have anything to sell to the city or export, you jut need to put it into that box, I will gladly take it and return to you with the money." he says, in a very mayorish manner.

"Thanks." you reply.

You are not very good with people. Maybe that is why you ended up behind a computer job.

"It is almost lunchtime!" Robin exclaims, she is so spirited. "So why don't you put your bag in the cottage and come have lunch with my family? After that one of my children can show you around town. My son Sebby is almost your age, I am pretty sure you two will get along."

"I... I don't want to bother." you reply scratching the back of your neck, uncomfortable.

"It was not an invite, it was a demand!" Robin says, and you can see the seriousness printed on her eyes.

You leave your bag beside the old bed in the cottage and follow her to the truck. After a small ride, you find yourself in front of a big house in the mountains.

"I think I have been here before." You say, as you look at the lake slowly flowing near you.

"Probably when I was still building the house. I remember you and your grandfather's other kids swimming around the lake. I think Sebby used to play with you sometimes. I guess if you remember each other." she says.

"I surely don't remember that." you say, pointing at a giant boulder pile beside the lake's source. 

"Oh, that. That is the result of a landslide provoked by Joja Mart."

"JOJA MART?!" you screech.

The simple mention of the company's name makes you sick to your stomach.

"Yeah, they say they are working to get it removed, but they wouldn't have to if they had not caused it in first place. I bet they were exploding the mines in search of gold, like the leeches they are."

"Probably." you agree to Robin's inflated discourse.

When you get in the house, you hear the sound of a small explosion, followed but smoke and a funny smell.

"Oh Yoba! Dad, are you ok?! I guess I overcharged the batteries again!" you hear a girl's voice and then a fire extinguisher being activated.

"There can't be a fucking minute of peace in this house." a guy comes from downstairs complaining. He is wearing a hoddie and has headphones hanging on his neck.

"Sebastian, language!" Robin says.

He turns to you and for a moment seems completely astonished to see you there, but quickly turns back to the apathic face he had on before.

"Hi honey! Maru and I were just doing a little experiment, but it got a bit out of hand... Oh, hello!" a man comes out of the room where the smoke is coming from.

"Y/n, this is my son Sebastian and that over there is my husband Demetrius." Robin introduces you as you wave shyly.

A girl comes out of that same room. She is cleaning her glasses worried, but as she glances at you, her face shines with a bright smile such as Robin's. She runs towards you and starts shaking your hand with both of hers, excitedly.

"Hello! I am Maru, and you must be the new farmer!"

"I... han... not a farmer actually. I will just live in the farm." you reply uneasy.

"Oh, but I guess living in the farm will make you a farmer, then." Demetrius says and giggles.

"I am going back to the basement." Sebastian mumbles taking the direction of the stairs.

But Robin stops him by grabbing the back of his hoddie.

"Sebastian, it is lunchtime, so why don't you go to the kitchen and put on the table for our guest, hmn?" she says in a way only a mother could.

He grunts and heads to the kitchen.

Maru leads you there by the shoulders while asking you:

"So you are from Zuzu city, right? How is life there?"

You can see Sebastian turning to you with the corner of his eyes when he hears it, he seems a little interested.

"Busy." you answer.

She keeps staring at you with a smile as if she is waiting for the development of your answer, and does it until you feel uncomfortable enough to either attend her expectations or flee.

"Well... it is crowded. People are unfriendly, time seems to go by very fast..." you say, cracking your fingers anxiously. "There are more malls, I guess."

"Interesting!" she replies with that same smile.

"So, you will be now taking care of Paradise farm, hm?" Demetrius says while sitting down next to his daughter. "I guess you will be having a lot of work taking care of all those weeds."

"I actually don't intend to work as a farmer." you reply.

"Oh really? What kind of work do you do, y/n?" he asks gently.

"I am a reviewer. I mean, I was. I used to take care of paperwork, write reports on data and... you know, spend the day in front of a computer. I think I will find me a job to do this, but from here." you answer.

"Sebby here is a computer geek, too! You two will get along well." Robin says while serving you more food than you think you can eat.

"I am a programmer, mom." he mumbles, facepalming.

"You should not be afraid of trying your hand at farming though." Demetrius says. "Darling! This food is DE-LI-CI-OUS! As I was saying, this land has very productive soil and the town is an exporter, I am sure you can make some profit by selling whatever you produce. Also there is much foraging around you can pick and sell, there aren't much people who take their time on doing that. The Salmonberry season will be here soon."

"Thanks honey!" Robin replies with a giggle. "I am pretty sure y/n has it settled for the computer job."

"Actually, I am pretty broke." you think while taking a bite of Robin's food. It is really good.

REALLY GOOD. You can't remember the last time you had a homemade meal and the thought of it brings tears to your eyes.

"Oh, dear! Is it too spicy?" Robin asks, serving you a cup of juice.

You shake your head negatively trying to wipe the tears, ashamed. Sebastian and Maru stare at you, concerned, they even exchange a glance of worry and then, look back at you.

"No,no I... I have... a gland problem, I tear up sometimes... when... I am... eating?" you stutter, sobbing a little.

"I think I have heard about that. " Demetrius says. "Maybe you should pay a visit to doctor Harvey in the town. He is a very good doctor."

You nod as you continuously take bites of that wonderful food. It is so good to finally have a meal that isn't pizza or a cold burger.

...

While having lunch you discover that Demetrius is a scientist. You take great pleasure in listening to him talking about how diverse is the Stardew biome. He also talks about minerals, the land's properties and many other scientific things while Maru stares at him like she is the proudest daughter in the world. You feel like you would look at him the same if he was your father.

Sebastian rolls his eyes more times than you can count and when he is finally done with the whole "family and guest lunch" thing, he stands up and says:

"I am going out for a smoke."

"Actually Sebby, could you please take y/n to get to know the town?" Robin says while she collects the dishes.

"Mom, I think you better ask Maru, she is better suited for these kind of things." He whispers at her, but you overhear.

"Oh well, so maybe you wanna stay and take her turn in washing the dishes?"

You swear you can hear him cursing while he passes beside you and makes a sign with his hand for you to follow him. You feel unease, but Robin points at him and shakes her hands indicating for you to go.

Sebastian takes you outside, to the garage and hands you a helmet.

"What?" you say.

"What?" he replies while putting on a helmet himself. "We're taking the bike"

"Bike?" you ask.

Sebastian uncovers an old-fashioned bike and gets ready to sit on it, but you stop him by giving him back the helmet.

"No, no, no." you say, gulping your breath. "I can't, sorry."

"What? Aren't you from the city?" he says.

"I can't ride a bike." you say, shaking your head frenetically.

"You just sit down and hold on, I am the one doing the riding."

"Look, you don't really have to do this. I will just go home and you can tell Robin I had to... do something else."

"You don't know my mom." he says while taking off the helmet. "Ok, wait here, I will grab the truck keys."

Sebastian doesn't take long to come back with the keys and the both of you get inside the truck. He lowers his window and immediately puts a cigarette in his lips.

"Do you mind?" he asks you.

"Actually, can I have one?" you reply feeling awkward.

"You smoke?" he says while rising towards you the pack with a cigarette extended.

"Only when stressed." you say while letting him light it up for you.

"Yeah. Me too." he says starting the engines. 


	2. Chapter 2

"... and this is the tavern." he says, pointing from the center of the square. "It is not a big town."

"It is very charming." you say. "I don't remember much from when I was here."

"You have been here before?" he his voice changes from the monotonous tone he was using to describe the town to a slightly more interested one.

"When I was a kid... I used to come here during summer to visit my grandfather. Me and my eleven cousins."

"You are one of the Paradise kids?!" he asked while gagging at the smoke of his cigarette. "I guess we used to play together... wow, it has been a long time. Sam had a crush on one of you, maybe it is you?"

"Who's Sam? I barely remember my cousin's names." you say, shrugging.

"Oh, ok." he says, replicating your gesture. "I guess it's been a very long time."

You suddenly feel something bump into your head and it makes you dizzy for a moment. Sebastian holds you by one of your arms so you don't fall forward out of surprise and two kids come running towards you.

"We are so sorry! I told you not to kick the ball so hard, Vincent!" a little girl dressed up in lilac says.

"Sorry." a little boy with messy hair replies.

"It... it is ok." you say rubbing your head with a moan of pain.

"Hi Seb." the little boy waves at Sebastian and he smirks at him.

You hear a call and a ginger lady comes running after the kids. She tries to greet you, but her breath is too heavy to proceed. You can't help but notice how pretty she is.

"Hi... he... hello. I am really sorry about the kids." she finally gets to say. "Oh, you are new here, aren't you?" then she turns to Sebastian. "Hello, Sebastian."

"Penny." he replies without much excitement.

She actually is not paying attention to you. She is staring at Sebastian. She is staring at Sebastian's hand, the one with the cigarette. She glances from it to the kids, then to the cigarette again. 

He tries to pretend not to notice, but her stare is too firm, so he groans and puts it out in his shoes, then puts the bud in one of his pockets. She smiles and then turns to you.

"So, you must be the new farmer, right?" she says with a gentle smile, offering you her hand. "I am Penny."

You are completely blushed and seem not to know how to react. She is REALLY pretty. Sebastian seems to notice your situation and pokes you with his elbow, making you wake up and shake her hand, but in an awkward way.

"I am the farm. I mean, I live in a farmer. I meant... I will live in the farm, but I am not a farmer."

Sebastian chuckles at your disaster of an introduction.

"So... what is your name?" she says.

"Y/n!" you answer promptly, annoyed by Sebastian's laugh.

"It is going to be very good to have you here in the city! If you need anything, I live in the trailer near the bridge to Joja Mart." she says. "I will be glad to help. Let's go kids."

"Bye bye." they both wave at you, and you wave back in a very dummy way.

After they are a little further you turn to Sebastian with a frown as he is still laughing. He takes a while to stop.

"So... now that you are done flirting, should I take you to the farm?" he asks.

"Oh, shut up." you mumble under your breath. "You don't need to bother about me, I need to buy some stuff to settle. Where is the Joja mart?"

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO THE JOJA MART!!!" a man comes down the square screaming and running towards you.

"Hi mister Pierre." Sebastian says as the man tries to catch his breath.

"Sebastian. I can't believe you were going to let the new farmer go to Joja Mart! What kind of in-law are you?! You need to help me protect business for the future!"

Sebastian who is unusually pale blushes to the same tone of his mother's hair and he puts both hands on his forehead as if he was about to have a stroke. You wonder why but are suddenly pulled by the man to a small market on the top of the square.

"So, what is your name again?" he asks while conducting you through the corridors.

"y/n" you say, confused.

"So, y/n, Pierre's store is the local, community friendly, and best store around. We also have a cashback program that is very useful for newcomers. Even more farmers! I have seeds of all kinds, some saplings too, everything you will want to have to rebuild that old Paradise farm..."

You tried to explain that you were not a farmer but the man kept talking nonstop and you felt like you were being brainwashed. All of a sudden you had spring seeds in your hands and were paying in cash for an apple sapling.

"It is really good to have you come to our lovely community y/n, remember to come by when you need anything. This chicken totem is a small gift for you, as a new costumer and friend. I might also buy things you produce in your farm for a nice price, so come by when the crops are grown! Also to have a tea with my wife, she will love to meet you. Now I need to get back to work, and it seems that you have a lot of work to do too! Bye!"

You found yourself out of the store as suddenly as you got into it.

"I thought you were not a farmer." Sebastian says as he sees you come out.

He seemed to be leaning against the wall waiting for you.

"Me too..." you say, very confused about everything that just happened. "I don't even have farming tools. I don't know what the... am I going to do with these."

"You will figure it out. Can we go now? I have a code to finish by tomorrow."

"I said you didn't have to wait for me."

"If my mother finds out I left you here I am going to be so busted. Let's g..."

Sebastian stopped talking as the door from Pierre's store opened up and a beautiful purple haired girl, like those very stylish girls from the city, came out. She looked at you confused, but then her face brightened up when she turned to Sebastian. He was blushed and you didn't need to do much math to understand what was going on there.

"I thought I had heard your voice." She says smiling.

"Hi, Abby." he greets her with a low whisper.

"So... who is your friend?" She asks turning to you.

"This is the new farmer." he says.

"Not a farmer." you reply and turn to her. "I am y/n. I will be living in the Paradise farm now."

"Ah, you are the new farmer!"

You put your head down with a sigh, why even bother anymore?

"Ah man, too bad. I liked exploring that abandoned farm sometimes, at night. There are so many bats there."

"BATS?!" your voice fails after you shriek.

"Some frogs too." Sebastian says.

"Frogs are fine, but BATS?!" you say turning to him. "I don't remember granpa's farm having bats."

"They probably live in your roof." Sebastian mocks, but as soon as he sees you getting pale, he gets back to being serious. "They are no hazard, bats around here feed on fruits and insects."

"Why did I have this fucking idea, who do I think I am, moving to a farm, of course there are bats, and probably scorpions and spiders, oh shit, I didn't think this through." you murmur to yourself while walking towards where you think is the path to your farm.

"Hey wait!" Sebastian yells but you are not even paying attention, stuck in your anxious thoughts. "I gotta go, my mom had me take care of the farmer."

"Ok, see you later." Abigail answers in a mix of a affirmation and a question. 

He nods and goes after you.

"Where the hell do you think you are going... hey?"

Sebastian notices that you are not fine. You have tears streaming down your cheeks and your skin has gone two tones paler, you are shaking so much you have dropped some of the items you purchased at Pierre's. That is a panic attack, and you are very used to those.

"Hey, I was joking about the bats. And Abby just saw one once." He says trying to calm you down.

You finally notice he is next to you and let go a gag of surprise. You hate letting people see you like that, and once you get these often, you don't keep many people around.

"I... I am fine. You can go back to your house. I am going to mine." by mine, you don't seem to mean the farm.

"No way I will leave you here like this."

"Like this what? I am fine." you even try to smile but it comes out so fake you seem to be growling at him.

Sebastian sighs, he must be thinking you are such a weirdo right now. He takes your purchases away from you and grabs you softly by the forearm.

"Either you let me drive you to the farm or I am taking you to the hospital." he says.

"What?" you reply, but you are already following him to the truck.

He drives you there, both of you in complete silence, you are still staring at the horizon filled with your thoughts of uncertainty. When you get there you see him lean towards the car's lever to go out, but you burst out as quickly as you can, carrying your things and yelling "good bye and thank you!" and then rushes to the cabin, locking the door behind you.

"Oh my fucking yoba!" you say tossing these purchases on the small table near your bed and then lying down. "What do I think I am doing?"

It was not about the bats or the scorpions, neither the spiders. It was about that feeling of uncertainty of leaving that old life in the city behind you. It was about having interacted with more people in a day than you were used to in a whole month in the city.

You had no friends anymore, not since high school. You barely spoke to your father, your life used to be all about work and you didn't have a job anymore. What to do now?

As you turn around you see a package closed. You hadn't noticed it there before. There is a letter on top of it.

You knell beside it and read.

"My dearest and most precious grandchild. If you are reading this, you have gotten the courage to leave the city life behind and come to Stardew Valley, to my precious Paradise farm. I know many of you cousins would like to have the farm for themselves, but only you, y/n, would be the one not to sell it for profit or turn it into a modern mall, but the one to bring It back from the ruins they are left. I am sorry I could not make things easier to you, but I guess there is beauty in turning something rotten into something bright again. And I am not talking about the farm, only. 

You see, my child, you were always the one to connect to the valley the most, the one that cared about the farm, the animals, the trees.

Remember that day, when you almost drowned in the mountain lake? I thought you would never want to come back, but you did and you swam on the lake so many more times, for you are the most fearless of my grandchildren.

In this package you will find my old tools and some seeds I asked Lewis to provide you.

I hope not only you bring the farm back to life but it also brings you back to that nice life.

Love, Grandpa."

The tears came down your cheeks smudging grandpa's pretty handwriting as you sobbed unstop. For quite a while you cried, but not out of despair. You were feeling hugged by grandpa and filled with good memories and hopes for a better life. You needed that.

You unpacked the tools, and then your laptop.

You opened google: basics of farming.

Research. 


	3. Chapter 3

Getting rid of the weeds took all morning but you got to clean up a nice amount of land. Tiling the soil was a bit harder, you weren't used to that much physical exercise, but when you finally got to plant the seeds you were feeling very satisfied. The apple sapling took twice as much effort, but it looked so pretty. You probably wouldn't see it giving fruits soon, though. Those took a whole season to grow and you could not remember which season they bare fruits.

You sat down on the cabin's porch and noticed how weak you were feeling. You forgot to eat both breakfast AND lunch and it was probably about six. There was nothing to eat there. You forgot the basics during your purchase at Pierre's.

You then decide to go to town and check out the tavern. It is a pretty long walk and when you get there you are feeling even more tired and hungry. You are all dirty too, but you just noticed that when you were already on your way. If you went back to tidy up you could maybe miss dinner.

You lean in to open the door but it opens in front of you. A clearly drunk man wearing a Joja Mart's uniform pushes you out of his way mumbling something not nice and staggers away.

"Hello! Welcome, may I take your... OH MY! THE NEW FARMER!" a blue haired lady yells and every single person in that place turn to you.

Actually, what about that town and all those different colored haired people? You think to yourself while trying not to panic with that much attention.

"Y/n, come here!" you hear mayor Lewis calling. He is sitting by a table with a beautiful fat woman. "Mernie, this is y/n, the grandchild!"

"Oh my! You are very different from what I thought you would be." the woman says, smiling at you. "I live in a ranch very close to your farm. I met your grandfather too."

"Hello." you reply noticing that both of them seem to be a little high from beer.

"If you need some tips on how to handle your animals, just call me!" she says.

"I don't have any animals." you reply, shyly.

"Hey Emily! Bring y/n a beer! And some of that fish casserole! Gus! Come meet the new farmer!" the mayor yells.

You see yourself sitting with them even though your plans were just to take some food home.

"Oh my, you are all dirty. Spent the day working on that farm, right?" Lewis says.

"Actually, I did." you reply in a low tone of voice. "It was fun."

The blue haired woman comes to you with the requested dishes from the mayor, a beer and what seemed to be a cake.

"The dessert is on me! Welcome to pelican town, I am Emily." she says.

"I... I can't accept this, I mean..." you stutter.

"Don't be silly!" she giggles and gives you a friendly slap on your shoulder. "It is so nice to have a new face around."

You dine and it is one of the best food you have ever eaten, and you feel like crying again, but you can't let it happen in front of so many people. Everyone still seemed to be paying attention to you.

A beautiful braided hair ginger woman and an equally handsome man were sitting by the table near you. She waves at you and he raises his cup in greet. You wave back trying not to look awkward. You felt like a city germling around those friendly people. The man tossing you away from the door earlier were the most familiar interaction you had there.

"Let me tell you about the time your grandpa and I..." Lewis starts telling you a disjointed story about an adventure your grandfather and him had in the Cindersap Forrest, but nothing seemed to make sense. Mernie keeps paying so much attention to him, she is all red and grinning.

You were trying to pay attention but that one beer turned into another and then another one, and you could barely listen to the words in sequence. It was all confusing.

"Hey Lewis! Let y/n be with other young folks." you hear a familiar voice coming from behind you.

It is Demetrius, greeting you with a huge smile.

"You are never old if you heart doesn't age." Lewis says rising his cup and taking another sip.

"Well said, my dear friend!" you listen to the ginger man cheering on the table beside you.

"Hello y/n, my son and his friends are in the back playing snooker, you should go there too!" Robin shows up, and forces you to stand up from the chair.

She practically pushes you towards the back, although you really try to escape the situation. The last thing you want is to see Sebastian again after the disaster of the day before. But...

There he is, along with the purple haired girl and a blond boy with a stylish haircut.

"Ah, hey you." Sebastian says, he doesn't seem very excited to see you.

"Farmer! Nice to see you!" Abigail cheers, waving at you from the couch. "You look... dirty. But fine. Did you find any bats?"

"No bats." you reply, crossing your arms a little embarrassed. "So... I guess I should be going now."

"Hey!! I know you!" the blond boy says snapping his finger and pointing at you.

He hits slightly his head with the cue stick, apparently trying to invoke from his memory where he knows you from.

"I don't think so." you quickly say, trying to think of a way of going away without seeming as awkward as you were the day before.

"You are that Paradise kid!" he says and a bright smile enlighten his face.

"You remember which specific kid?" Sebastian asks, seeming amused.

"Yeah, the one that almost died because you pushed into the mountain lake!"

You, Abigail and Sebastian choke as Sam claps hands to himself for remembering who you are. And actually, you remember almost drowning in the lake, and you remember being pushed in the water, but you thought it had been one of your cousins.

"I guess I owe you an apology." Sebastian says in a clumsy way.

"Ow, such a delayed apology." Abigail giggles and he blushes.

"It's ok, at least I didn't die. I guess." you reply.

"Wanna play snooker?" he asks and you can clearly see that it is out of politeness, and to escape the previous subject.

"No, I am heading home, I am tired."

"Come on y/n! I am so tired of losing to Sebastian, I could use a partner." Sam says, extending the cue stick at you.

He is such a cheerful guy you can't picture how those two are friends.

"What do you think Abby?! Paired game?" Sebastian asks.

"You know I don't like playing this game." she says.

"It is ok, I am going no..." you try to excuse yourself.

"But if the farmer stays, I will play." she completes her thoughts and winks at you.

You blush and this sight makes Sebastian stare at you with a both confused and annoyed face. You are surprised by Sam hugging you by the shoulders and yelling a combination of your names and "go team!". Actually, how did he KNOW your name? Did he REMEMBER? You barely remember knowing him.

"Us versus team Sabby!" he says.

"Team Abbastian, my name comes first." Abigail says.

You see yourself forced to play that game.

Sam sucks.

He is terrible, a complete disaster. He keeps hitting all the wrong balls and making points to the other team, and sometimes he even cheers over that, not knowing that was not his ball. It is kind of funny, but secretly, you are not a very nice loser. But should you really play seriously?

The game is over very quickly and you are beaten good.

"Sorry, I said I was bad." he smirks at you while scratching the back of his neck.

Sebastian raises his hand to Abigail, and she high fives him.

"Let's play serious now?" you ask and wonder if you didn't have one too many beers.

"Excuse me, what?!" Sebastian says rising one of his eyebrows in a resentful way.

"Yeah, I was just warming up." you reply.

"Sorry, but not even if you were the best player of snooker in the world you could win with Sam as a partner." he mocks.

"Try me." you say while putting some chalk on your cue stick.

"OOOOOOOOhhhhh." Sam says with the hand on top of his lips pointing at Sebastian.

"Ok, how about a one on one?" Sebastian asks.

"Fine." you reply.

Both Abigail and Sam sit very close to the table to watch you play against Sebastian. The game starts even, each of you scoring in every play, he seems impressed. But your wrist starts aching because of the long hours of labor in the farm, and the shadows of your time at Joja corporation and you start losing some points.

"Are you ok?" Sebastian asks when he notices you pressing your wrist because of the pain.

"I'm fine." you answer. "Ready to kick your ass."

You immediately repents on the sentence, but Sebastian smirks at you and gives you space for your next move. Finally, you get back into scoring.

Game comes to an end, you lose two points short.

"Nice game." he says and extends the hand to you.

"Yeah..." you grunt and shakes it.

"Sebby! We are going home!" Robin yells from the saloon.

"Right, mom." he replies, rolling his eyes.

"Wanna come?" she asks gently.

"I will go later." he says, annoyed.

"Oh right, walking Abby home." she says and giggles as he facepalms annoyed. "Oh, and Sam too, of course. Make sure to take y/n too! Safely!"

"Good night kids." Demetrius comes by and waves. "Don't come home too late, Sebastian."

Sebastian starts murmuring some curses while Abigail and Sam wave nicely at them. You kind of understand why he is so annoyed, but also don't think he should stress so much about it.

Actually, Demetrius and Robin were very opposed to your parents and this made you admire them a lot.

"Let's play one more?" Sam asks, trying to hand you the cue stick.

"Actually, I should be going." you say while massaging your aching wrist.

"Ok, I will pay my check and we go." Sebastian says.

"What?" you ask.

"What?" he replies. "You heard Robin, if I don't take you home, I am busted."

Abigail seems a little uncomfortable on the couch.

"No, you stay with your friends, I can take care of myself." you say.

"I am sure you can, we all can. But when Robin says something, you better abide by it." Sebastian says while getting his wallet and heading to the balcony.

"No, wait!" you stop in front of him and he bumps into you, almost falling back.

"Damn, you're strong." he whispers rubbing his ribs.

"I will stay for a while more, than. I don't wanna bother."

"If you want to go, we will go." he says, very clearly annoyed.

"No, I will stay!"

"Ok!"

Sam and Abigail glance at each other, confused by the awkward dynamic between the two of you.

You sit next to Abigail on the couch while Sam and Sebastian play. You can't bring yourself to playing anymore, your wrists are aching too much now.

"So, why did you come to the valley?" Abigail asks you.

"I... kind of... needed a fresh start." you reply feeling unease about it.

"Funny, people from here go to the city for a fresh start, you came to the countryside." she says. "Don't expect much though. It is very boring here."

"I hope so..." you say and sigh.

She was very wrong. 


	4. Chapter 4

"I didn't think you were so tired to the point of passing out in that sofa." Sebastian says while taking a drag of his cigarette. "If I knew we would have come earlier."

"Aw... I shouldn't have drink that beer." you say, feeling sick to your stomach.

"If you are going to throw up, please do it in some bush and not near me."

You didn't even bother answering him. Next thing you knew, you were kneeling down barfing behind a tree. You were not very used to drinking.

"Sorry." you say when you can finally talk.

"What about?"

"Everything."

He shrugs and helps you stand up.

"You are... different." he says.

"I know, I am weird."

He laughs.

"You think you are weird? My best friend is the weirdest person I know. Being different in a town like this is not a bad thing you know?" he says.

You stare at him for a while too long, he blushes showing is discomfort.

"You didn't pass as a supportive type at first." you say.

"Don't get used to it." he says smirking at you.

When you arrive the farm you can see that the seeds you planted in the morning had turned into little sapling already. You shake your head, sure that it is a prank of your dizzy mind, but they are there.

"Sebastian, can you see those or am I really wasted?" you ask him, pointing at the saplings.

"I can see them, but I am also pretty sure you ARE wasted." He mocks you.

"How can it be?! I planted them this morning!" you look at him completely astonished.

"So what?" he asks.

"They were not supposed to grow like this... I mean, this is crazy!"

"Oh really? I don't understand much about farming." he says while getting another cigarette from his pocket. "I will be going now, ok? Thanks for the game, I had fun. Destroying Sam every time was starting to get boring.

As he goes, you sit down on your porch staring at those little saplings.

...

You have a dream.

You are playing with your cousins by the mountain river. A younger Sam and a younger Sebastian are there too. Sebastian is ginger back then, but Sam's hair still challenges gravity somehow. There is a third boy that is not from your family, he is brunette, very alethic and seems to like you a lot.

Sebastian challenges you all: who can go up a tree by the shore faster. You are the first to run there, before anyone ever agrees to the bet. He doesn't like it and run as fast as he can, followed by the other boy and your cousins. Sam kind of gets left behind.

You start climbing the tree so fast, you didn't even remember being so agile, you feel like a feral squirl. The other boy is right behind you, he even tries to hold your foot and tickle you, but you don't give up. As you laugh together, Sebastian gets to pass you, but you quickly follow after him.

Somehow you manage to get to the top first, Sebastian is all sweaty and puffing. The other boy comes after and congratulates you on the win. He kisses you on the cheek and you get all red about it. Sebastian doesn't like it, actually he seems really jealous. You think it is about you having won and start mocking on him.

You call him gingerbread man. He hates it and pushes you. Because of your weigh the branch you fall on cracks and you fall on the river. You can see both Sebastian and the other boy reaching towards you.

Your head hits a rock and you get unconscious. But actually, you just can move, you still can see... everyone is jumping on the water after you, but you feel like you are nowhere to be found. Maybe that is it, your short life has come to an end.

You hear a funny sound and turn your head to the left. You see an apple.

The apple has two eyes and pink cheeks.

There are others, they are all around you, making that funny sound and lifting you up from the bottom of the lake.

Next thing you see, a hand grabs your wrist, lifted by the little apple spirits. You are pulled out of the water by Sebastian, he has almost drowned too. He is crying and doesn't stop apologizing, but you aren't able to say anything to him, the words don't come out.

You spend some days in the hospital, all your vitals are ok, but you keep seeing those little apple spirits around. The adults are afraid you had too bad of a concussion and no one believes in you... except for... grandpa?

He says you were saved by the forest spirits, but your mother and father tell him not to incentive these kind of thoughts in you. Eventually, they stop taking you to Stardew valley.

The longer you are away, the more you forget about your time there.

When you wake up, the dream seems like a shadow, but you feel very different.

...

They were even bigger! From one night to the other, the saplings have grown as much as they should in a week.

"Am I going insane?" you ask yourself.

You water them and put some extra fertilizer, then you decide to go to the city and buy some food for the farm. When you arrive there, you see Mayor Lewis in front of a big old house behind the square.

"Oh, hi y/n!" he calls you, as you two seem to be the only people around. "Come here a second."

You feel a little annoyed. Is it going to be like this now? Every day that amount of interaction in your life... how can you handle it?

"Good afternoon, Mr. Lewis." you say.

"Call me Lewis." he says with a gentle smile. "Do you remember this place?"

You take a look at it. Everything is so broken and old you can swear it is probably haunted. You can't seem to remember anything like it.

"I see." he says. "You were so young, but you, your cousins and your grandpa used to come here. This is the community center of Pelican town. Well... it used to be. Come on in."

You follow him inside and it looks even worse than the outside. Bindweed has taken over the walls, there isn't a single piece of wood that is not broken or rotten and there is even a tree fully grown in the corner of the main hall, but even that tree seems to be decaying.

"This used to be the heart of the town, everyone in the community gathered here for parties, birthdays and even city events." he says. "But as time went by... it seems like these kinds of things are not as important nowadays."

He starts a discourse about how people would rather watch TV instead of gathering with the community, but you can't follow because... there is an apple jumping by the window.

"Y/n, what's with you?" the mayor asks turning to the place you are looking.

It immediately disappears.

"It was..." you are about to tell him about the apple but, why bother? "I think I saw a mouse."

"This place is probably infested by mice, it has been closed for so long." He says and sighs. "It is sad to see it like this. But I think that is what happens to old things, see Paradise farm, for example. Good that now you are there to rebuild it. Too bad for this place, there aren't people willing to do it."

"Did you ask people?" you ask out of curiosity.

"Unfortunately, every time we set to rebuild everyone was busy with something else. Eventually, I think everyone just gave up." the mayor let go a long sigh. "And since Joja Mart came to town, they keep making offers to buy it and turn it into a warehouse. I am thinking about selling it by the end of this year... the city could use the money."

You look around once more. It does seem sad to let ANYTHING that once was good end up in Joja corporation's hands. Wasn't this what happened to you.

You feel a strange connection to the place.

"Anyway, I must be going now. Have some mayor duties to accomplish. Thanks for giving an old man some time to be nostalgic." he says and chuckles. "I will leave this place open if you want to take a look, maybe you can find some of you Paradise kid's old toys in the crafts room."

It is weird because you wouldn't usually do something like that, but as the mayor went away, you started exploring the rooms and they seemed to bring you back some blurry memories. Maybe you played with your cousins in that corner. Maybe you attended someone's birthday and ate cake by that old table. Maybe you sat with your grandpa in front of that big fish tank and he told you stories about fishing.

You hear a sound and it immediately makes you turn to the decaying tree in the corner of the main hall. Your heartbeat increases as you see not one, but many apple spirits jumping around and waving at you. They seem to be talking but you can't quite understand.

"What the hell is going on with me?" you say, rubbing your eyes and shaking your head.

They are still there.

One of them, a green one makes you a sign for you to follow it Still uncertain, you do, and it takes you to a golden scroll in the middle of the crafts room. You see there is something written there, but you can't quite understand it.

"Junimos?" is the only thing you can discern.

The little apple starts jumping and making that funny sound as if it is agreeing to you.

"You are Junimos?"

It seems even more excited. The more it makes those funny sounds, the more it seems like it is saying your name.

"You know me, isn't it?"

It seems to agree.

"You saved me that day." you say. "So either everyone was wrong and I didn't go crazy back then, or I am going crazy right now."

"You are certainly not going crazy, my dear."

You yell as you listen to a voice come from behind you and a figure comes from the shadows of the corner of the room. A purple bearded wizard dressed up in a fine robe walks towards you.

"Don't be afraid. I am Rasmodius, the Wizard, keeper of the secrets of the forest, master of the elemental's knowledge... you get the picture."

"Where did you come from?!" you yell as you try to step back, but you end up tripping and falling.

"I have been paying close attention to you for the past couple of days. You are the one whose arrival was foreseen by the valley. The one connected to the forest powers, the one to change the valleys destiny... well you, my friend, are a hero to become."

"What the fuck is going on here? Am I dreaming? Am I dead? Am I dreaming in a comma?" you star hyperventilating. "I have gone crazy, that is it. I finally lost it!"

"Please, calm down." the wizard says as he can see you going pale.

"Oh my, what if I never left Zuzu city? I must still be in bed, I need to wake up to go to work, that is it! I am not crazy I am just sleeping..."

The little Junimo beside up jumps and slaps your face with his little stick hand and it hurts way more than it seems to be possible.

"What the..." you say, but it seems to take you away from your anxious thoughts.

"As I was saying..." the Wizard cleans his throat. "You were brought back to this valley to help it heal from the many hazards it has been imposed by both mankind and witchcraft. Also, I have seen, to change the destiny of the people who live here."

"Me?" you screech with unbelief. "Man, I can't barely fix my own life."

The wizard chuckles.

"Well, sometimes to help another one is the best way of helping oneself." he says.

"What the hell is going on?" you say rubbing your temples.

"You will understand when the time is right." the wizard replies. "For now, drink this."

He extended to you a cup filled with a green liquid.

"You are kidding right?" you say.

"No, you are supposed to drink. These are the ingredients from the forest, it will help you understand the language of the elementals." he says.

"I am not drinking it."

The Junimo beside you starts jumping and puffing in a way to demonstrate impatience and he seems so angry that you take the cup from the wizard's hand and, after taking a nauseated look at the content, you drink it.

You feel dizzy and things start moving a lot slower. You can see the memories of yourself as a kid running among trees, playing in the river, collecting and eating savage berries. You see yourself playing with animals, riding a horse, rolling in the mud with grandpa's pig.

You see the faces of some people from the town. You are beside them, helping them and doing nice things, things you had never thought you would do in your life. You feel happy to help, you feel like a part of something. And then... there is this someone you suddenly see yourself kiss.

"If you might ever need me... meet me in the towers west Cindersap forest." you hear the Wizard's voice.

As you open your eyes, you see the image of a man and a girl, both with glasses in front of you.

"Y/n? Are you ok?" you hear Maru's voice coming from the distance. "Oh my Yoba, what a scare you gave me!"

"What? Where am I?" you say slowly sitting down and looking around.

"You are in the clinic. Maru found you passed out near the fountain. You have symptoms of an insulation, perhaps you have been working too hard in the farm." the man says, adjusting his glasses. "I am doctor Harvey."

"Insulation? Last thing I remember I was drinking that green thing from the wizard..."

Both Maru and the doctor stare at you, looking concerned.

"I mean, I probably had a bad dream while passed out. Thanks for bringing me Maru, sorry for the trouble." you say.

"No problem, I am stronger than I look." she says. "Now lay down, you are taking intravenous medicine, you seem to be very poorly nourished. Have you been skipping meals?"

She gently pushes you into laying down.

"I forget to eat sometimes."

"That is very hazardous! Even more being a farmer and working a lot in the sun and with so much physical effort!" says Harvey, looking very angry.

He gives you a full lecture about the importance of eating healthy and says that he is going to give you some supplements. You are actually worried about how you are going to pay for the treatment. 


	5. Chapter 5

After almost a whole day at the hospital, you are going back home, walking around the bus stop when you suddenly hear something coming after you.

You check behind you, but there is nothing to be seen, so you keep walking.

Once again you hear the footsteps and a heavy breath coming after you, but there is nothing. You are sure you can listen to something, but things have been so insane lately you are not sure if you can trust your instincts anymore.

You turn around once more. The empty dirt road makes you nervous.

But when you turn back to your path you face what seems to be a huge monster made out of grass and mud. You let go a shriek and step back, scared, and end up tripping and falling in your hands and knees.

It tries to attack you with a weird wet noise, but from behind you, a dog jumps over your head and attacks it. They fight violently for a while until the monster explodes into a great amount of fiber stacks.

The dog turns to you still growling and you are afraid it is going to attack you, but it runs towards you and starts licking your face while wagging it's tail happily.

"Ok, ok! Thanks for saving me." you say while giggling from the little licks it gives on your face. "What the hell was that?"

You analyze the stack the monster left behind. Monsters, forest spirits, excessive social communication... you have had enough for only three days in that valley, so you sit down, in the middle of the road, and just stare at the fiber pile. The dog sits next to you and waits.

"He really saved you, that dog." you listen to a voice coming from a bush beside you.

From the bush a gray haired man with a big beard comes slowly walking your way. He wears what seems to be some clothes made out of hay. He is a little dirty, but carries a soft and gentle smile. You are ready to stand up and run away.

"Don't be afraid. I am Linus, I live in the mountains, behind the carpenter's house." he says. "I am a man from the nature."

You stand up and take a look at him. He doesn't seem to be carrying anything dangerous.

"I am y/n."

"The new farm owner, right? I heard of you. I am really sorry I attracted the Wilderness Golem towards you, I was trying to escape from it. You must be a person very connected to the nature for a monster to have attacked you. They tend to avoid the people from the town because of Rasmodious protective magic."

"So you know the Wizard? I really thought it could be a dream... damn." you say.

"Good thing Dog was here to aid us." he says and kneels down to pet the dog. "I think he is a stray, but not by choice, like me."

"You sir... are you a survivalist or something?" you ask him, trying not to sound rude.

He chuckles.

"I am just a man who likes living with the nature. A simple, but good life."

You sigh. A simple and good life, that is more than you could ever want.

"So, I think our friend Dog likes you. Would you like to take him with you?" he says while watching the dog run towards you and land his front paws on your tight.

"Yeah, there is a lot of space in that farm... I guess I could keep him."

The dog seems to understand you, because he starts jumping around very happily. It is an adorable view.

"Linus, can you see the Junimos, too?" you ask.

"The Junimos?" he asks you while scratching his beard. "I guess you are talking about the forest spirits... I can feel them, but see them? I think only very special people can do so."

"Special?" you hug your own arms feeling insecure. "I wouldn't say I am special."

"Maybe not yet. Maybe you are having an opportunity to be." he says, still scratching his long beard. "Life works in many mysterious ways."

"You speak just like the wizard."

"Perhaps that is why we are good friends." he chuckles. "But you seem pretty special to me. People tend to avoid me, but here you are, talking to me."

You look at him and can't help but let go a little smile.

"I tend to avoid people, in general. But you seem like a good person." you say.

He smiles back at you.

"Thanks. You too." he nods at you. "You should see my friend Marlon in the cabin near the mines. He might have a spare sword for you. It is dangerous out here sometimes."

You nod back to him and the two of you start walking together in the way of your farm.

"Linus, have you ever noticed how weird things are here? Wizards, forest spirits, monsters... even my plants seem to grow in a completely different way. The town's folk have never noticed?" you ask him, afraid of looking insane.

"Actually, the town's folk know about all these things, but they think it is normal, and that it is like this everywhere." he says. "It is the magic of the valley. That is how it protects itself."

You start thinking about it. Perhaps that is why you didn't remember much about those childhood times while you were in Zuzu city, and the reason why as soon you were in the valley, things started to come back to you.

Linus leaves you and Dog at the farm and bows a goodbye to you, he then leaves to the path of the mountains where Robin and her family live.

You sit down on your bed trying to digest everything that happened today, Dog lies by your feet and falls asleep with tranquility. You are soon sleeping too.

... -

You wake up to some knocks at your door and the barks of Dog.

When you open it up you find yourself in front of a very sleepy Sam, dressed up in Joja's uniform, extending to you a letter.

"Good morning sir or m'am... this is a Joja's corporation informative and our current shopping catalogue." his tone of voice is very monotonous and he seems to be saying a very badly memorized text. "Join us and thrive."

"Hi Sam." you say while taking the envelop.

"Hey y/n." he lights a smile from under his sleepy face. "OH! YOU HAVE A DOG!!!"

Sam doesn't even ask you permission to come inside, he actually pushes you aside and jumps towards the dog, who immediately jumps on him, dropping him on the floor and starts licking him.

"Who is the cute puppy?! Who is the cute puppy??" he says while seeming as, or more excited than Dog. "What is his name?"

"It's Dog." you say, shrugging without the courage to say you could not bring yourself to think about anything else to call him besides the what Linus did.

"Dog? Ok, Dog you are the cute puppy!! The cutest puppy!!"

Dog lies down, belly up and Sam starts scratching it while its wagging tail taps loudly on the wood floor.

While Sam plays with dog, you open up the letter to see a very weird note about how Joja corporation has removed the landslide in the mountains, followed by many letters and numbers that represent a law that backs them up. You were used to writing those kind of letters in your old job. The other paper in the envelope was just a bunch of Joja products propaganda.

"So, your vegetables are looking fine... for vegetables." Sam says after he seems done with playing with Dog, that is still lying down, thrilled by all the pets.

"My what?"

You look outside the door to realize your parsnips are completely grown. In just FOUR DAYS.

"You seem to have a really... nice ability with farming. I remember that you liked spending a lot of time searching for wild seeds with Alex." he says.

"Alex?" you mumble.

The sudden image of the brunette boy from your dream comes to your mind.

"Hey, how do you remember so much from back then? Weren't we like, five, six?" you ask him.

"I was four." he says and takes a deep breath, seeming a little sad, but he then gets back to his bright mood, although sleepy. "I have a good memory, it was when my father was still around so I need to remember."

"Your... father..."

"He is out there in the battlefields fighting our enemies." he says. "Sorry, I said like he wasn't alive anymore."

"Oh, ok..."

The two of you get into an awkward silence.

"He will be back soon." he says, a little concerned. " Meanwhile, I am the man in the house!"

You raise one eyebrow looking at him in his "manly pose".

"I mean, not that you need to have a MAN in the house, you know. I am not that kind of guy that thinks men are... you know... It is just that my mom and my little brother... they... they need my support so I... I am the guy of the house you know. Not as the MAN, but THE man..."

You giggle, not to make fun of Sam, but to notice how similar he is to you in getting confused with thoughts and words.

"Sorry, I know that for people in Zuzu we, from the countryside, seem like very antiquate people. I lived there a while." he says.

"No, it is fine. People from Zuzu are antiquate sometimes, too. I mean, not that countryside people are always antiquate..."

You stare at each other and then let go a laugh.

"I like you y/n, you are a nice person." he says. "I better get back to work now, I still have some more of these to deliver. It was nice seeing you and Dog."

"Yeah, I gotta pick those parsinips and take it to the city. Maybe I can sell some of them..."

"See you, then. Show up at the saloon sometime, I am so tired of losing to Sebastian, it is nice to see him defeat someone else." he says.

"Oh, I won't be losing next time." you reply.

"Hey, I like that energy! You used to beat him a lot in games when we were young, he hated it."

You remember something Sebastian said before Sam leaves.

"Sebastian said you had a crush in some of my cousins. Just out of curiosity, can you tell me which one?"

His face gets a little red and he stares at the wall for a while, then, he scratches the back of his neck, uneasy.

"I... I don't remember. He he he. Byeee!"

He leaves quite fast towards the mountain way. You kind of think you hear him call Sebastian something bad. 


	6. Chapter 6

You spend all morning collecting parsnips, but you get a very nice price for them at Pierre’s, enough to cover both your hospital and saloon bills, and also buy some food for the farm. It is a little less than what you used to make in a week, but you feel really nice about yourself.

You are happily walking back to the farm when you hear someone calling you.

“Did I get your name right?” a blonde girl says coming down the stairs that lead to the fountain in the community center. “I really wanted to take a look at you. Emily had told me you were very good-looking.”

You turn to her and see that she is analyzing you from head to toes. This makes you feel a little vulnerable.

“I guess under all that dirt and with some different clothes you might actually look pretty nice.” she says.

“Excuse-me?!” is the only thing you can stutter behind a gag of disbelief.

“I am Haley. My sister is the crazy blue haired girl that works at Stardrop.” she says.

You can’t even bring yourself to greet her.

“I guess you won’t be much of a menace, then.” she speaks just like those mean girls you thought were only seen in movies. “See you around.”

The same sudden way she came, she goes away, charmingly walking in heels, moving her hips in an 80’s movie sexy way. 

“Told you being weird over here is nothing.” 

You look behind your shoulder and Sebastian is smoking ,  coming from the bus stop path.

“You know, Sam kicked me in a place that hurts this morning and I think somehow it is your fault.” he says without even greeting you. “Did you say something about the crush I told you?”

“I just asked.” you say, shrugging. 

“How are you?” he asks.

“Fine. Why?”

“Because. Isn’t it something normal people ask when they meet?” he lets go the cigarette smoke almost in your face, he doesn’t seem to care about here the smoke is going. “Also, I overheard my mom and Maru talking about you being in the hospital yesterday. Did you drink too much again? We already have two alcoholics in town.” 

“It was nothing like that. I just...” met a wizard and drank a green potion he gave me? That seemed to support more his theory of what happened. “... had an insulation?”

“Yeah... don’t push yourself too hard.” he says. “See you around, drunk farmer.”

“Bye gingerbread.” you reply with a whisper.

He freezes at his spot as if he was just hit in the stomach and slowly turns to you over his shoulder.

“What did you just say?” his voice i s rough.

“Nothing.” you say with a giggle.

“No, no. Repeat that. I heard you say it.”

“I didn’t say anything.” you  shrug . “I better be going, I still have to eat lunch, I don’t  wanna pass out somewhere else, again.”

“You are that fucking kid that used to hang around with Alex and call me gingerbread man, weren’t you?” he says. “I fucking hated you back then.”

“That is why you tried to kill me?”

His infuriated expression was quickly overrun by a nervous one.

“I didn’t try to kill you, it was an accident. And I saved you.” he says looking sideways a bit ashamed.

“You don’t call me what you just did, I don’t tell her you used to be a red hair.” you say.

“Her?... ABBY?! HELLO.”

Abigail shows up from behind Sebastian, holding his hips as if she was trying to scare him. It actually worked because he turned red right away.

“Hi  Seb . Hey farmer! What are you doing?” she says.

“Hello. I was going home.” you say.

“The two of you are getting along well, right?” she says and you can feel something weird in her voice. “It is the third time I see you hanging out.”

“We used to know each other.” you say and Sebastian sends you the most infuriated and threatening look you have ever seen. 

“I see...” she says, looking a little worried. “Did I interrupt something? Do you want me to leave?”

“No, it is fine. I was just leaving.” you say and organize your food packages in your hands. “See you later.”

“Wait a moment!” Sebastian says. “Abby, excuse-us just a second.”

Sebastian hugs you from your shoulders and takes you a little further from Abigail, that keeps staring at you both, curious.

“You don’t ever tell anyone I was ginger. EVER.” he whispers by your ear. “Neither how you used to call me. Got it?”

“Or what?” you say, bumping into his chest with your shoulder and smirking.

He steps away impressed with your strength. He stares at you as if he is about to do something that he doesn’t even know what is.

“Relax. I was just kidding.” you say, and wave at Abigail. “See you around.”

“Hey y/n wait!” Abigail calls. “We are  gonna play videogames at Sam tonight, come too.”

Sebastian chokes at his own breath and you start feeling very anxious over the invite.

“I have... something... I...” you stutter.

“Come on!” she says, coming closer to both of you. “It is going to be fun, like that day in the saloon. Tell the farmer to come, Sebastian.”

“Cooome...” he says in a VERY sarcastic way.

“I... I will see about that.” you say very quickly. “I really need to go now.”

“Sebastian will pick you up when he is coming! He will be there at seven!” she says in such a firm way you don’t even know what to reply.

“Abby, what the...” Sebastian whispers at her.

“Didn’t you say Sam had a crush on the farmer.” she whispers back. “Let’s help him!”

“Yeah, but he likes Penny, now.”

“Oh, come on, Penny... so boring.”

It couldn’t be possible that they thought you were not listening to them. She keeps insisting and even pokes him on his ribs until he agrees to her.

“I will pick you up.” he says.

“O...k...” you say in a very uncomfortable way.

You go away living the two of them behind and, as you look over your shoulder you can see Sebastian discreetly lowering his face... maybe for a kiss? Were these two dating after all?

You quickly think that this is none of your business and when Sebastian comes over your house you can find an excuse for that unwanted social interaction.

When you arrive your house, there is a man sitting on your porch. He wears an eyepatch and a long cape, just like some character from a videogame. 

You stand still by the gate while staring at him, wondering why can’t you avoid social interactions AT ALL in that town. As he sees you, he stands up in a very noble posture and greets you:

“Good afternoon, y/n. I am Marlon, the Adventure’s guild master.”

“The what, now?” you mutter.

You remember Linus saying something about that man but... couldn’t he be just some crazy guy? If a man dressed up like that in  Zuzu city came towards you saying he was of some Guild, you would probably runaway. Maybe you should find a way to lock that gate on your farm...

“Linus told me you had a battle with a Wilderness golem.” he says. “And that you were very brave.”

That was not what happened, but you didn’t really know what to tell him.

He  slid his cape to the side, letting you see an old and rusty sword that he, then, handed to you. It was very light, but you felt unease about being holding a white weapon that could easily hurt someone.

“Here, it is for your protection at night.” he said. “Also, if you enter the mines, you will certainly need it.”

You just nod at him, as yo u  don’t know what to reply.

“I can see in your eyes you have the adventurous spirit in you. I will tell you! If you can slay 10 slimes I will give you a pass to the guild.”

“If I can what?” you think to yourself as you shake your head in agreement.

“Farewell my fellow adventurer.” he says, and leaves as if he is a knight going for battle.

When you see he is far enough you immediately let go the sword, letting it carve on the ground in front of your porch. You didn’t want any of these!

You get inside your house, but the memory of the Wilderness golem attack comes to your mind as soon as you see Dog l yi ng on the carpet, he is waving his tail at the sight of you, and you notice that he has a scratch on his back. You hadn’t stopped to take a good look at him before. You feel bad for him having gotten hurt while defending you.

You get back outside and grab the sword.

“Come here boy, let’s give you a shower and take care of this injury.”

You take a long time bathing Dog and then making a bandage on the hurt spot... and you forget to eat again... Dog is probably hungry too, it’s a nice thing you bought some dog food for him. As for you, maybe you should microwave a pizza.

You hear a knock at the door.

“What is it now, someone bringing me some bows and arrows? A fucking witch?” you say to yourself while getting to the door.

As you open up, you face Sebastian staring at you with a sneering face. He looks really good, the hair is a little less messy and he is wearing a black shirt and a leather jacket instead of the usual hoodie you see him in.

“What the hell were you talking about?” he asks between dragging and exhaling the smoke of his cigarette.

“Damn it. I forgot.” you say. “Look, I can’t go, I haven’t eaten yet.”

“I can wait, I am early. Besides, I am taking some snacks too.” he says.

“Why don’t you just... say I was not feeling ok? Please.” you insist, trying to slowly close the door.

“Abby won’t fall for that. And... Sam was pretty excited when I told him you were going, I don’t want to disappoint him.” he replies pushing the door open and getting inside.

He stops at the sight of your cottage. Just a little room with a bed, a table and a chair. The smallest fridge he had ever seen (for sure you had seen too) an old  tv , a microwave and a small bathroom. That was all.

“You should get my mom to upgrade this house sometime.” he says without any regard to  whether that would sound rude or not.

“Do I look like I have that kind of money?” you reply with a little frown.

He sits on the only chair available and puts the package he is carrying on the table, beside a... helmet.

“Aw man...You did not came by bike, did you?.” you say anxiously. “I am not riding with you, you can tell them anything, I am not going.”

“Hey what is your deal with motorcycles?” he says. “I will ride safely, don’t worry.”

You cross your arms and take a deep breath. 

“It is... personal.” you say.

He stares at you seemingly worried but then he just looks to the other side and nods.

“Ok then. We walk and then I come pick up my bike.” he says.

You sigh as you see that he is probably not going away without you.

“Wait there, I will dress up.” you say with your head down.

You get to the bathroom and take a quick shower, then dress up with one of the only nice set of clothes you have left, you tide up your hair (and maybe put on some make up if you like it). You don’t have any perfume left, so you can only hope that the shower was enough to get off the smell of dirt from the farm.

When you get out of the bathroom you see Sebastian glance at you, quite surprised, but he quickly stands up and gets the package with snacks from the table. You realize this is probably the first time anyone sees you and you are not tired from a long trip or all covered in farm dirt.

As the two of you are leaving, you look at the sword behind your headboard and wonder if you shouldn’t take it with you, just in case... but he would probably think you are even weirder for doing so. You remember Linus saying the town’s folk are protected by some spell, so you hope being with Sebastian helps those monsters from attacking you... but maybe...

“Hey, what is taking so long?” he says.

“How weird would you think I am if I brought a sword along?” you ask.

Sebastian stares at you a little surprised.

“What, have you met any slimes around the forest? I guess spring is also their breeding season.” he says. “But you don’t have to ask me anything about it. You do as you please, I don’t judge you.”

He scratches his neck a little blushed.

“Abby sometimes brought a sword to your farm when we came here.”

You get impressed that Sebastian talks about slimes, but you then remember what Linus said about some magic in the valley that made people think those magic things were normal. You feel very relieved to be able to bring the sword with you. 

It is kind of a long walk and Sebastian smokes two entire cigarettes along the way. You walk in silence until you arrive the forest entrance of the city, where you can see a blue house with a navy sign above the door, not far away. 

You then see that a man is staggering from the road to your direction, holding a can of beer. He is grunting and does not seem to see either you or Sebastian coming in the opposite direction. Sebastian pulls you aside so you get out of the man’s way.

“What?” he says, staring at you. “What did you say?”

“Nobody said anything, Shane.” Sebastian replies. “We are just going to Sam’s house.”

“They keep staring at me, I don’t know what these people keep looking. Why they don’t leave me alone...” he mutters while passing beside you.

As he says this you notice that you WERE in fact staring him and you feel a little bad about it. Maybe that is why the man engaged in such a rude talk. You saw a lot of people like him in the streets of  Zuzu city.

“Don’t worry about him.” Sebastian says, and signs for you to keep walking.

Something about that man pulls your attention and you keep looking at him until he disappears in the forest.

“Is he ok?” you ask. “Is it ok to let him go like that. Isn’t that forest dangerous?” you ask.

“He gets like this every night... never died.” Sebastian says shrugging. “He works with Sam.”

You think that is very bad of him to say something like that, but you think again, if you were willing to do anything to help anyway. You continue to walk to Sam’s house.

“Why are they taking so long?” you hear a worried whisper.

Abigail and Sam are waiting for you outside his house. She looks absolutely stunning with a nice black dress and a denim jacket. Sam is wearing some stay-home shorts and a T-shirt and when he sees you and Sebastian  arrive, he gets quite embarrassed.

“Man, what do you think I invited you to do?! It is just videogames! Why are you guys all dressed up?” he complains. “Now I feel like I have to put on some pants.”

“You look fine.” Sebastian says and pushes the snacks packages against his chest. “Go get us some food, y/n haven’t eaten yet.”

None of them seem to care about the sword you are caring on your waist.

You get inside and it is quite a charming home, it seems to have been tied up very carefully and gently. A ginger lady (that was quite a ginger town) was seated on the couch watching TV while that boy who kicked a ball on your had some days before was playing with toys on the floor.

“Abby!!  Seb ! Ah... and y/n!” Vincent say very happily.

He runs towards Abigail and hugs her legs, then Sebastian fist bumps him. He stops in front of you and waves, uncertain of what to do, but showing a small smile.

“Good night Mrs. Jodi.” both Sebastian and Abigail say.

“Good night.” you follow, in a clumsy way.

“Oh, hi kids!! Welcome!” she replies with a smile. “Hello y/n, nice to finally meet you. I am happy that you are already friends with my son.”

You nod and try to smile, once again, uncertain of what to do, but Sebastian just pushes you forward to the direction of Sam’s room. 

“You are a social disaster.” he whispers at you.

“Don’t tell me!” you reply.

“You are not much better  wi th people yourself.” Abigail says. “ I don’t think you get to say anything about the farmer.”

“ Yeah, but I chose to be this way” he replies.

Sam suddenly  grabs you by the shoulders and excitedly yells that combination of your names he made up  during the snooker game.

“Let’s team up y/n!!”

“Aw man, I  wanna team up with the farmer! Sebastian doesn’t know how to  do teamwork.” Abigail complains.

“Why do you think I chose y/n??” Sam replies, showing her his  tongue in a  very childish way.

A loud noise comes from your stomach, and you go red with shame while hiding your  face between your hands.  Abjgail let go a giggle  while Sam slowly steps back , heading outside his room, probably to the kitchen to grab you something to eat.

He comes back full handed with bowls  of snacks, sauce and some soda bottles, but for you he gives a plate of what seems to be a complete dinner. This makes you even more  embarrassed.

“Don’t worry, my mom always makes too much food.” He says with a smile.

While you are eating, and it is absolutely delicious, both you and Abigail watch while Sam and Sebastian play a combat game . Sebastian wins two of the three rounds but not as easily as he won in snooker a couple of days before. Abigail, then, takes Sam's control. She wins the first round  but Sebastian is way too good in the game and beats her the same way he did to Sam.

“Your turn now, farmer.” Abigail says, handing you the control.

“I wouldn’t even bother…” Sebastian brags , putting the control on his lap and cracking his fingers.

You wipe your mouth with a napkin and take the control, then choose one of the tiniest characters in the game.

“Are you kidding? Chose another character, this one sucks.” Sebastian says.

“But it is so cute.” You reply. “I  wanna play with it.”

“Suit yourself. This is  gonna be quick.” He replies.

You smirk while pulling the control closer to your body. The screen announces the beginning of the match and you quickly start pressing a combination of buttons that is so well memorized you don’t even need to think about what you are doing. Your character hops around the screen punching and kicking Sebastian's and it is so fast that his character can’t hit it with their strikes. Just a few minutes later the screen announces your flawless  victory.

Sebastian drops the control on his lap, staring at the screen in disbelief, he then turns to you in a mix of anger and awe. You  can’t contain a victorious smile.

“Wow! I didn’t even know this character could do  these kinds of maneuvers!” Sam exclaims while taping you in the back. “This was so awesome!!”

“Wow! You play very well, farmer!” Abigail congratulates.  “You beat  Seb to the ground.”

“Round two!” Sebastian  angrily says, picking up the control while the screen announces the second round.

You rest the control on your lap and start lightly pressing those same buttons making your character hop around the screen  in that same way, with the same result. Sebastian's character drops in slow motion in another “flawless victory"  announcement .

He turns to you in what seems an expression of complete defeat and makes a gesture of questioning.

“I used to play a lot of videogames on my free time.” you explain. “Also, I know a lot of special moves from reading forums.”

“Yeah, I do that too.” Sebastian says, upset, tossing his control to Sam.

You kind of pity him for getting so bitter over his loss, but it is  pretty satisfying winning over him after that pool play. You are a bit of a competitive person and he seems to be too. You spend the rest of the night defeating the three of them using the most underrated characters of the game. Each match Sebastian seems more determined to win, but even when he gets close to it, you find a way to win using a special power he didn’t know about or a combo you made up yourself.

“You are REALLY good at it!” Abigail says excitedly. “You have to teach me this combo.”

“You just press triangle and x while moving forward.” you say, getting close to her and showing the way you move the buttons. “Using the analogic is better than the arrows, see? It is faster.”

Abigail tries to replicate your movements, frowning her browns and biting her tongue in a very adorable and concentrated face. You blush at the sight of it and barely notice that she is doing everything wrong.

“No, wait, you have to move your finger to this side, unless you want to invert the control’s settings.” you say.

“Can you do that?! It seems much easier to turn this way.” she replies. “Maybe that is why I can’t beat my game at home! Hey, can you come over and teach me how to do this?”

Sebastian stares at you with the most outraged face while Sam glances from the two of you to him in a worried expression.

“I can write you a tutorial.” you reply.

“ Nooo ... I hate messing with these kinds of things, I might even burn the console. Please come and help me, I live behind my father’s store.” she says in a very slick way. “ Pleaase ...”

You can almost feel Sebastian’s eyes burn the back of your neck, but Abigail’s stare is just as intimidating. You are afraid that if you give her any excuse she will read into your soul and then find a way to curse you into accepting.

“Ok...” you reply completely uncomfortable.

She smiles at you in a victory gesture. Sebastian on the other hand, grunts and stands up turning off the videogame.

“We should be going now.” he says.

“What? It is still so early!” Sam complains. “I didn’t even brought the sweet snacks.”

“I am pretty sure y/n has to wake up early to attend the farm’s business.” he replies. “Also, I have a code to finish.”

“Aw man, I was going to ask y/n to teach me how to unlock the mysterious character.” he grunts and puts the controls beside the console.

“Haven’t I already told you how to do it?” Sebastian is almost growling at him.

“Yeah, but I never get to do it when you are not here. You don’t explain things very well.” Sam mutters.

You can see Sebastian discretely slapping him in the back of his head while Abigail is still busy moving her fingers as if rehearsing the new  move she has learned from you.

Sam takes you outside and waves  goodbye at you as you walk towards Abigail’s house to escort her there before you go back to the farm. It is not a long walk until you get to Pierre’s.

“You should hang out with us more often.” she says and taking you completely out of guard, she kisses you on the cheek.

You freeze completely, your face becoming a bright tone of red as you hear Sebastian gasp in outrage. Abigail doesn’t even bother saying goodbye to him, she just gets inside and you see her long purple hair waving through the glass door.

Both you and Sebastian stay put for a while.

“We should be going right?” you say.

“Yeah...” he replies with what, for you, seems to be a roar of threat.

You walk in silence until you get to the entrance of the forest. Sebastian seems so stressed that he puts out two cigarettes in that short walk.

“Listen, I don’t want to stay in your way.” you apprehensively say.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” he replies, sharply.

“Abigail.”

“What about her?” he asks and his voice barely comes out.

“Aren’t you, like, her boyfriend or something?” you ask.

Sebastian chokes in his cigarette smoke and spends quite some time coughing, but it seems to be more about making you stop talking. As you keep staring at him, he stops and looks back at you, his eyebrows frowned and cheeks a little blushed.

“It is complicated.” he says.

“Ok, none of my business.” you say, putting your hands up beside your shoulders.

“Thanks.” he says.

“But you do seem to like each other.” you can’t help saying.

“I said THANK YOU.” he yells and you giggle.

You keep walking through the forest, passing a little cabin near the river and then, Marnie’s ranch until you reach the bottom entrance of the farm. When the two of you are entering, you hear a terrible screech and Sebastian stops to look around.

“What the hell was that?” he asks.

“A bat, maybe?” you say, your hand is already on the handle of your sword.

You hear it again and out from between the trees a giant skull head comes dashing at both of you, cracking its teeth as if it is about to bite you.

You push Sebastian aside and swing the sword at it, but it ducks and attacks you with a bump in your chest, sending you flying to the ground near him.

“What the fuck!? What the fuck?!” he yells while standing up and trying to help you stand up too.

The skull takes a turn and aims at Sebastian, but you push him aside again and this time, you get to hit it with your sword knocking it back a few yards. It makes a horrible sound and quickly comes back in your direction. You wave your  sword, but miss, and it bites your arm.

You hear Sebastian scream your name in worry,  and it hurts like hell, but you find a way to set yourself free and knock the skull with the sword again.  It let go a cry of  anger and try to advance, but it is suddenly knock down by a shadow.

It is  D og! He came to save you once again .

Dog bites it and presses it against the ground while it screams and tries to escape. With a big effort from your hurt arm, you  stab the skull as hard as you can, and it shatters into pieces that start disappearing.

You let go the sword and fall on your knees, puffing and moaning in pain. Dog comes closer and licks your face, his tail  slightly wagging.

You feel a touch on your shoulder and  turn around quickly in a defensive pose, but it is just Sebastian checking on you. He is covered in dirt and his eyes are  wide open with the scare.

“It's me, it's me.” He says, kneeling by your side and trying to make you let go of your hurt arm so he can see it. “ This is ugly, I should take you to the hospital.”

“And say what, that you bit me?” you reply trying to make him get away from the wound, that clearly looked like a human bite.

“Do you have any other ideas?” he asks.

“Take me to the Wizard!” you yell in pain.

“The WHAT now?” Sebastian says.

“You know, the guy that lives in that weird tower in the forest. He will help me... I guess... damn it, it hurts so much!”

By now you have started crying and Dog starts barking at Sebastian, as if he is telling for him to hurry. He stands up and runs to get his motorcycle.

Besides you starting to say that you are not going to hop on that, Sebastian lifts you with a strength he does not seem to have and forces you to sit in the backseat.

“No!!” you yell and tears are coming down.

“Just hold on ok. I promise you we’ll be ok.”

You shake your head negatively, but Sebastian takes your unwounded arm and makes you hold onto his hip. He stops for a moment, holding your hand and staring at it, as if he has just zoned out in some thought. His hand is cold, probably because he is nervous and scared, but you feel suddenly comforted by it. You slowly stop crying with small sobs.

“Can you hug me with the other arm?” he asks.

You nod and pass the other arm around his hip. He starts the motorcycle engine, and you let go a shout of fear, hugging Sebastian tight and pressing your face against his back. He starts riding fast towards the west of the forest.

“Are you ok?” he asks midway.

You can only bring yourself to nod.

“You are holding a bit tight...” 

“I am sorry.” you sob, but can’t loosen the hug.

“It’s ok...”

When you arrive, as soon as Sebastian stops the bike, you hop out and fall on you knees of it giving him a big scare. He hops after you, and even lets the motorcycle drop on the forest floor. He helps you stand up and walk to the tower.

You knock at the door.

“Who can it be at this time... Oh  Yoba !” the Wizard attends and gasps in surprise to see you bleeding. By that time your sleeve is all red. “Come on in! Come on in!”

The Wizard gives you some weird red medicine to drink and Sebastian stares at it very uncertain if he should let you do it or not, but you quickly grab it and gulp it down. The pain starts to fade away while  Rasmodius cleans up the wound and infuses it with herbs.

“So, what happened?” the wizard asks when you finally seem better.

“I ask you!” you yell at him. “I don’t remember signing up to fight MONSTERS. A fucking flying skull BIT ME!”

“Hmm... it seems like your ability to connect with the valley comes with the hazard of attracting the cursed ones.”  Rasmodius says. “Not even my strong spell can protect you as it does to the townsfolk. It impresses me that you were attacked along with one.”

Sebastian is staring at  Rasmodius seeming VERY confused. That is probably the same face you made when you first met him.

“I will be going back to  Zuzu ! That is it!” you say.

“I am afraid it is not possible anymore.”  Rasmodius replies, scratching his purple beard.

“Excuse me?!”

“You see, once you are now connected to the valley, you will find very difficult to leave.” he says. “You may try to take the bus, or any other way of transportation, but you will always find yourself back here.”

“I don’t believe it! You are saying this to keep me here with those monsters and the...  Junimos ! They are telling you to do this!”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Sebastian asks.

“Those little apple things that live in the old community center! They are behind this.”

Sebastian stares at you as if you were the craziest person in the world.

“Show him!” you shout, turning to the wizard.

“Only those connected to the Elementals can...” he starts lecturing.

“I DON’T FUCKING CARE, FUCKING SHOW HIM!!!” you yell while beating your feet on the ground.

Both the Wizard and Sebastian jump in place scared by your sudden lash out. He takes off his hat and scratches his head.

“What is with this new generation and curses?” he sighs. “So be it...”

Rasmodius starts saying some incomprehensible words and each and every one of the rocks of the tower start shaking. Sebastian holds tight to the chair you are sitting and you start regretting saying anything at first place. A big flash of light blinds you for a second, and in the middle of the room a summoning circle appears. In the middle of the circle, the tiniest apple appears.

It is a little green  Junimo . It waves at you and Sebastian and starts making those funny noises it does. You turn to Sebastian and gesture at it.

“I have been smoking too much pod.” he says while rubbing his head.

You stand up and force him to sit down on the chair you were sitting, then hush to pick the  Junimo on your hand. You squish it while showing it to him, and then, you start, very dramatically, telling him EVERYTHING that has been happening to you since your arrival: the old memories, the plants growing too fast, the community center, the monsters attack.

He listens to everything staring at you as if some engine has just broken inside his head. When you finally finish, he keeps staring in silence.

“I think it was too much for this young man.”  Rasmodius says, analyzing Sebastian’s face from up close. “Maybe I should wipe his memory.”

“No! No messing around with my head anymore, please!” he says, standing up quickly. “I knew you were trouble! I should have stayed home washing the dishes and let  Maru hang out with you.”

“Excuse me! I am clearly the victim here. Also, this bite here? I got it protecting you!” you say while shaking your previously wounded arm.

“Apparently you were the one who put me in danger in first place.”

The two of you keep staring at each other in infuriating rage.  Rasmodius makes a wonderous pose and then smacks his fist on his  hand as if he had just made a discovery.

“I see... your destinies are connected. You are the ones for each other.” he says.

“THE WHAT?” you both yell.

“He has a girlfriend!” you say pointing at Sebastian outraged.

“Abigail is NOT my girlfriend.” he replies.

“Interesting, interesting.” the Wizard mumbles. “You have found yourselves so soon in your journey, such a connection is rare.”

“Excuse me Mr. But farmer here isn’t my type.”

“Wow! What?! Am I too ugly for you?” you don’t even know why you are still bickering over it, but you don’t feel like letting him say something like that about you.

“Did I say that? You said that. I didn’t say that.” Sebastian talks back.

“I see, I see...”  Rasmodius isn’t even paying attention to you. “Quite a journey you have ahead of you. You shall, then, rest for tonight.”

“ Wha ...”

Before the both of you can finish the sentence, the Wizard gestures with his open hands and a big flash of light involves you...

…when you realize, you are waking up on your bed. There is no bite in your arm anymore. You can hear the rooster sing in the distance.

…


	7. Chapter 7

You have just finished packing up your things when you hear a knock at the door. Poor Dog is following you everywhere, his tail and ears down, as if he knows you intend to leave.

“Sorry Dog, I can’t take you with me... but you can still live here, I will leave the house open for you.”

When you open the door, Sebastian is standing there looking unrested. His dark circles that are naturally deep are even deeper and his hair is a complete mess. He seems to be wearing pajamas under his hoodie.

“Can you, please, tell me what the fuck happened last night?” he asks, his voice is husky.

“Don’t know, don’t care. I am leaving this crazy valley.” you say, passing beside him with your bag. “Excuse me, the next bus is in a few minutes.”

Both Sebastian and Dog start following you to the bus stop. He keeps calling you because you are walking too fast and don’t even respond to him, and Dog barks in echo to his calls.

Sebastian finally decides to run to stop you, but you start running too, so you can avoid him, and the scene is quite weird. He only catches up to you when you are at the bus stop. He grabs your forearm and pull you so you turn to him.

“Just, explain!” he says, while puffing. “Man, I need to stop smoking.”

“How can I explain? I don’t even know what is happening!” you reply. “Look, let’s just forget things happened. Let’s forget I was ever here!”

“You are leaving like this? You are not even going to say goodbye?”

“Goodbye!”

“I meant to everyone else!”

“Would you?!”

Sebastian stares at you for a while and then shrugs.

“I am pretty sure this damn valley will wipe out everyone’s memory as soon as I am out of here.” you say, while signalizing to the bus that comes in the horizon.

The bus stops in front of you and opens its door, you turn to Dog and give him one last pet, and he seems so heartbroken that you almost consider staying. But you quickly turn around and hop on the bus.

Sebastian keeps staring at you through the window, he seems confused and bitter. His lips are a bit open, as if he is trying to find some words. As the bus departs, his image starts fading away.

You look down and take a deep and relieved breath. 

But suddenly, the bus stops.

“Hey, you! This is the last stop, you have to get off.” the bus driver says.

“What? We barely moved.” you reply.

“I don’t know what you mean, you have been in this bus for hours now, I don’t know where you intend to go, but maybe you got the wrong bus. Anyway. Down!” he says in a very rude way.

As you step down the bus, you see Sebastian staring at you with a very scared face. Besides him,  Do g hops happily, wagging his tail.

“What just happened?” you ask, as the bus goes away.

“Just when you left, the bus... it showed up again and you came down.” he stuttered, his voice was shaking.

You growl impatiently and the two of you wait for the next bus to come. Sebastian is too shocked, he doesn’t seem to be able to go anywhere.

As soon as the bus arrives, you hop on it and chose a different seat, away from the window. Once again, it stops abruptly after just a few seconds and the bus driver tells you that is the final stop. You are forced to go down again.

Sebastian seems about to pass out. 

You do it three more times, and the drivers are ruder each time, always telling you how long you had been in the bus.

You finally sit down by the bus stop and just stay there, staring at the horizon. Sebastian sits next to you, grabs a cigarette, lights it up and gives it to you. He, then  lit one for himself. You smoke in silence until they are both all burnt.

“I am stuck in this fucking valley.” you finally say.

“Welcome to my life.” he replies.

He taps you on the shoulder seeming to try to comfort you, in a very  apathic way.

“So... your life is like an RPG.” he says. “I doesn’t sound that bad now. My life is a constant big nothing.”

“Want to trade? I will gladly live in your basement and eat your mother’s food every day.” you say in a very bitter way.

Sebastian laughs, but it is an ironical laugh.

“That house is a fucking hell. They only care about  Maru , nobody respects my schedules or my personal space.” he complains. “Demetrius keeps trying to act as if he is my father, this fucking pisses me off.”

“I wish I had a nice father, like Demetrius.” you sigh. “My father couldn’t care less about me. All he cares about is money, so he can spend in gambling.”

Sebastian turns to you pitifully and touches your shoulder again.

“Sorry.” he says. “At least you have the farm, right?”

“I don’t know what to do with this farm.” you say while hugging your knees and shrinking yourself, Dog sits next to you, feeling your sadness. “I don’t know why I thought I could just leave the city and change my life. And now all these crazy things are happening and I don’t have where to go, or who to trust.”

“Hey, you’ve got the dog.” he says, and smirks.

You look at him from the corner of his eye.

“And me, silly. I won’t just leave you be after all I’ve seen. I am not that bad, you know.”

You can’t help but smile at him.

“Thanks, Sebastian.” you say. “Sorry if I was kind of a jerk with you.”

“Yeah, you were.”

You punch him on his rib, but not for serious, and both of you giggle.

“I was a jerk too. Thanks for saving me yesterday.” he says, and then, he stands up, tapping the dirt out of his pants. “Come on, let’s microwave a pizza in your plaza cabin and think about what to do.”

He reaches out to help you stand up and you accept the help. When your hands touch, both of you freeze and your eyes get lost in each other’s. You feel lots of nostalgia, and you see that he can feel it too. Some memories come up, you are kids, you seem to be so happy playing together. You remember the feeling of touching his hand, and this makes you rub it a little with your thumb, he rubs it back almost instantly. 

“Hey folks!” a voice calls you and immediately breaks the moment, and the two of you split up as if you were doing something very wrong. Sebastian almost falls seated. “ Heeey ! The new farmer! I have been looking to meet you the past days.”

When you turn around, something seems to hit you hard in the heart. A smiling brunette wearing a tank top is coming in your direction and for a moment, you see a shirtless little boy coming instead, and you feel so happy to see him.  A bunch of memories come through your mind : hoping on trees to pick up fruits, playing sports together,  hiding inside a log while it rains. 

“Alex?” you say,  and he stops in front of you looking surprised.

“Do I know you?” he asks,  moving his head to the side, like he is analyzing your face.

“ I… I am y/n. I think… I think we used to play together when we were kids.”

He gives a nervous chuckle and scratches the back of his head.

“ Aah … sorry, I don’t remember anything from when I  was a kid. It was a long time ago.” he looks to the other side seemingly disappointed. “Haley was  teasing me saying the farmer might be good looking.” he  says under his breath, but both you and Sebastian  can hear it.

“So… hanging around with the cool kids.” Alex s ays  pointing at Sebastian.

“Cool kids.” Sebastian  repeats with displeasure, knowing Alex was being ironic.

“Do you play sports?” Alex  asks you, ignoring him completely.

You shake your head in a no sign and he shrugs, putting his hands in his sports jacket’s pocket and looks to the other side.

“Man, what a complete waste of time…” he whispers, but then turns back at you and smiles. “Ok, I see you soon. If you want to check out on me, I sometimes play some  gridball at the beach.”

That said, he rises his fist for you in greeting, but as you take too long to hit it, he just lets it down and goes away, waving from his back.

“Jerk.” Sebastian says under his breath.

“That was… weird. He is not like what I remember.” You say , letting go a sigh.

“What are you talking about?” Sebastian replies in despise. “He is still the same idiot. Didn’t change a thing.”

“He sure grew up.” You say.

Sebastian turns to you with a  bothered stare and it makes you wonder why he would look at you like that.  That look seems very similar to those he tossed at you when he was jealous of your interactions with Abigail . But he soon turns around with his usual  apathetic face and starts walking towards your farm.

“I am  hungry . Let’s go.” He says.

…

Sebastian takes the cardboard of the pizza and puts it aside while you clean up your hands in an old rug. Dog keeps staring at both of you, so he tosses the final piece of what he was eating to him.

“Don’t give my dog human food.” You complain.

“I saw you passing a whole piece to him under the table.” He says. “ How come you don’t even have plates.”

You shrink your shoulders and look aside,  embarrassed .

“ I didn’t have the time to think about it.”

“Well… I guess not having to wash dishes is a bit of a bright side.” He said while washing his hands. “ Wanna go for a smoke?”

“Didn’t you say you just smoked when you’re stressed? Every single time I see you, you are smoking.” you say to him, but you have already stood up to follow him outside.

“That says a lot about me, then.” He says.

You both sit down on your porch. He offers you a cigarette, but you refuse with a hand gesture, so he takes it to himself. He is about to light it up, but stops for a moment.

“I think I might have something better for us now…” he says, opening the bottom half of the pack and picking up a  pot cigarette. “This is for a real time of stress. I guess it applies, don’t you?”

“I… I don’t smoke that. But be my guest.”  you reply.

“Sure…” he says while putting it on his mouth and  lighting it up. “I forgot, you just trip by drinking green potions from a Wizard.”

You punch him in his arm and he chuckles, letting go a de nse cloud of smoke and giving it to you. You take it in your hand and stare at it for a moment,  but he lifts it up , as if telling you to go ahead. You take a small drag and  give it back to him . A fter a while, you are both lying on the porch,  looking at the sky with red eyes.

“I wished I could say this whole thing seems like a nightmare, but it actually feels like it’s the most real thing that has ever happened to me … and… and there is a part of me that says: yeah! This is better than working  the whole day while my wrists hurt.”

“Your wrists hurt?” Sebastian doesn’t seem to be engaged in the same part of the conversation as you are.

“ I mean, all I have to do is… help some people?  Take some stuff from around here for those  Junimos ? Slay a couple of slimes? I can do that!” you say .

“I like slimes. Slimes are cool.”

“You saw me with the sword yesterday! I crushed that skull hard ! I think I even know how to do those star wars  twists with the sword!”

“You like star wars? I like star wars.”

“The  new movies.”

“AAAAH COME ON. Those suck.”

“Sebastian, you are basically that Kylo Ren dude.” You say, and at the thought of it, you start laughing and squirming yourself around.

“I am not. I am a Darth  Vadder kind of guy… not that Anakin is much better though… stop laughing.”

As you continue to laugh, Sebastian  starts pushing you, bothered, but he is so high  he  gets influenced by it and starts laughing too.

“Aw man, I can picture you  yelling at the  stormtroopers !” you say between laughs.

“Shut  up.” he laughs along

“WHERE IS MY MORNING CIGARETTE?! HOW CAN I BUILD A DEATH STAR WITHOUT MY MORNING CIGARETTE?! Won  won !! PSSST PEW  PEW !”

Sebastian gets so caught in your  sounds impersonation that he bends himself in laugh  even though he keeps declaring he is not enjoying the joke.

“Stoop!!” he complains while shaking you  by your sleeve.

“Ok  galactic sad boy!” you say and burst even more in laughs.

He shakes you again and suddenly the fabric of your sleeve rips on his hand.

“HEY! I  don’t have many clothes, don’t rip them.” You complain while standing up.

“Sorry,  I will give you a shirt.” He says sitting beside you and rubbing his eyes. “Man, you're sure poor.”

When he realizes that his mockery is actually true, he quickly looks at you, feeling bad about it.

“Sorry I…”

“I mean, you're not wrong.”

“What is about us that we can’t have a normal interaction, ever… damn I was having fun. Of course I had to ruin it.”

You shake your head, but Sebastian seems really bothered by having ruined the nice  atmosphere between you. He was seeming to get into a bad trip.

“Let's do some foraging?” you ask and he turns to you, confused. “I need some money and I don’t know who told me I can find wild onions that I could sell in the forest. I think it was Linus.”

“Linus? The guy who lives behind my house? You are friends with him too??” he says while standing up. “Are you  gonna go around making friends with the weirdest people you find?”

“I am friends with you, aren’t I?”

“Nice comeback.”

The two of you walk towards the forest and Dog  follows after, h appily chasing after wild birds  and  squirrels. Sebastian seems to still be bad tripping while you are walking.

“What is up with you?” you ask.

“Nothing.”

“ Just tell me already.” You insist and bump into him .

Sebastian  staggers to the side and let go a “hey!”, firstly really bothered, but when he sees you smiling, he  smirks a little and gets back to your side.

“I am just thinking about what happened before.”

“It was sure scary, wasn’t it?” you  relpy .

He stops beside you and take a very good look, deep in your eyes. You realize he was not talking about the night before, but about the moment you held hands  in the bus stop. You can feel your cheeks get a little red, and as he sees it happen, he turns to the side looking embarrassed.

“So…” he says while getting back to walking. “What do you remember about our childhood?”

“I don’t  know… I remember running around with my cousins… I remember Alex.” he discreetly grunts  when you say his name. “And that you were ginger.” He grunts out loud this time. “and the  Junimos .”

“So… you see them since the … is that my mom? ”

You turn to where he is looking and you see a ginger lady kneeled by the lake. She seems to be washing her hair .

“Sebastian that is not…”

“What the… mom, what are you doing?” he asks running towards her .

“…your mom.”

Leah screams when he suddenly pulls her shoulder and Sebastian also screams in response. He’s probably had forgotten he was high and really thought it was his mother there.

“Sebastian, I will end up adopting you.” Leah says while braiding her hair again, he was completely blushed. “He ALWAYS mistakes me for his mother, can you believe that?”

Sebastian is tomato red, scratching the back of his neck while looking at the ground and winking as if trying to get out of his weed trip, and it doesn’t help that you and Leah are giggling about the situation.

Leah stops for a moment and seems to analyze you  from head to toes. She then smiles and extends a hand to you.

“I am Leah,  you are the new farmer. Y/n right?” she says.

You nod and shake her hand, that you notice being very strong and  calloused.

“So, what are you guys doing around here?” she asks. “It is  rare for me to see Sebastian somewhere besides the town.”

“I should stick to it.” He complains still a little ashamed.

“We are foraging.  Looking for spring onions but… I am not really sure where to find them.” You reply.

“Oh! You will find a lot of nice ingredients in these woods! I have been having fresh salads almost  every day ! I will show you, come on!”

Leah took you and Sebastian to an eastern corn of the forest where she helped you pick lots of wild spring onions growing from the floor. She talked about how many nice salads you could make with that, while Sebastian stayed seated on a log behind you.

“Don’t you want to pick some,  too?” you ask him.

You notice he smiles  when he sees you shaking the onions at him.

“I will just watch you from here.” He replies.

You turn to Leah and she giggles.

“Your face is all dirty.” She says.

You blush and rush to clean it up while you hear Sebastian chuckling from the log.

After you finish picking up the onions Leah invites you and Sebastian to visit her cabin and have a salad with her. As both of you had been high, you can’t bring yourselves to refuse, as you are feeling very “hungry".

“This is actually really good.” You say  when you finish your plate. “I was never the salad type but… wow.”

“It’s the weed.” Sebastian whispers  and you push him by his shoulder while he discreetly laughs.

“ Right? I love the ingredients from this valley. From spring to winter you can find some very good foraging around.” Leah says. “Everything about this valley is really inspires me. If not to carve my sculptures,  at least to make some delicious salad.”

“Sculptures?” you ask curiously.

“Oh yes… I am an artist. I mean… I try to be at least. ”

You look around her cabin, at the sculptures  and  paintings hanging  on the walls . Some of them are really realistic and others  just asymmetrical shapes, but they all look really nice.

“ These are all yours?” you ask.

“Yes! All those that I made since I got to the valley. What do you think?”

“They look so nice.” You reply. “You could make an exposition out of these.”

“Or you can sell them online.” Sebastian replies. “It is pretty simple, you just need to  make an account in one of those art websites.”

“Oh, but I don’t have a computer… and it is pretty expensive.” Leah says, nervously chuckling. “But the exposition idea… that seems kind of nice. Do you think people around here would stop to see  my art?”

You look around once more and smile at her.

“I would.” You reply, and as Sebastian says nothing, you kick him a little too hard  under the table.

He grunts in pain and shakes his head at Leah, whose face  bights up with a  confident smile.

You stay for a while more listening to Leah explain about some of her works of art, as if she was showing you pieces of her own museum. She seems really happy about it and some of the explanations are actually really interesting. You get particularly pulled by  an sculpture that seems to be just a bunch of knots tied together.

For your surprise, a  Junimo pops up inside of it, and start playing around in the knots, sliding among them and making a positive sign to you.  When he notices how weirdly you are staring at the sculpture, Sebastian pokes you and questions you with a hand gesture. You point at it as if it was obvious, but he doesn’t seem to be able to see the  Junimo .

“Come anytime to eat some  salad.” Leah says as she waves goodbye at you.

You and Sebastian are walking the city path  carrying a lot of spring onion packages when he bumps at you purposely.

“You shouldn’t go around giving people ideas  like that.” He says.

“Like what?” you reply a little bothered.

“ Making art expositions here. This is a countryside town, people wouldn’t be interested in her art. She should go back to the city .”

“You don’t know. Maybe it could be nice. Her art was good, people could come FROM the city to see her.” You say, shrugging. “You never know. Besides, better to have hope than just giving up. In the city she is just another artist. Here she is THE artist, no one around does what she does.”

Sebastian  stops walking as if you have said something outrageous. He seems to think for a while .

“You have… a very different line of thought, you know?” he says,  and gets quiet in a very thoughtful way.

As you arrive at Pierre’s shop, Sebastian  holds the door open for you, but it suddenly comes back, hitting you  in the forehead with a slam. He quickly pulls it again and  pull you inside. You can hear him asking you if you are ok,  but you barely discern while rubbing your aching nose.

“Wow, it was quite a hit.” You hear Abigail say  and realize that she is by his side, staring at you with a serious face. “Are you ok?”

“I am fine.” You say, and turn to Sebastian with a frown. "What was that?!”

“Sorry…” he mutters.

But he is not paying attention to you. Neither is Abigail  any more, they are staring at each other in what seems to be a whole conversation of expressions. He seems worried and guilty and her, very accusing. You realize he probably let go the door on your face because her sudden presence had surprised him.

“ So…” she says still staring at him. “The two of you… together… again.”

“We met by chance. I saw y/n with the  packages and came to help.” He says.

You don’t understand why he is lying and this makes you a little annoyed, but you remain in silence not wanting to get in the middle  of whatever seems to be happening between them.

“I see… so what gave to you to go out in pajamas today? ” Abigail asks in a cold tone. “Is it some new fashion trend from the city?”

Sebastian looks at his own clothes  as if he had forgotten what he was wearing while Abigail starts sniffing him just like a curious dog. She suddenly sniffs you too and her  eyebrows come together in a frown.

“I see...” she says looking very unpleased. “I will not bother you anymore.”

She turns with a “ humpf ”  and right away Sebastian says a quick “excuse me" to you,  practically tossing you the packages he was carrying and follows after her  inside of the store, to the door that guides to her house.

You stand there for a while , your nose aching  and feeling confused.

You sell the onions to Pierre  and buy some new supplies for the farm and, as Sebastian doesn’t leave by the time you are done, you decide to wait a little outside.

Nothing.

You go back to the farm alone, with a bitter feeling of treason , but you can’t understand why.


	8. Chapter 8

Some weeks have gone by and there you are, looking at the farm with a warm and nice feeling of fulfilment om your chest. You had cleaned up a lot more, retrieving so much wood and fiber you didn’t even know what to do with those: you wonder if the town could export it.

Also, you found an old pickaxe among your grandfather’s tools and  you started cleaning off  those boulders lying around. While doing so, you found an interesting  golden ore.

“Does  it have any value?” you ask Pierre while delivering to him a nice patch of green beans.

“I don’t buy these, but maybe Clint might.  You should check with him.” He answers while giving you back the ore. “But don’t get too excited, I don’t think it is worth much.”

You get to Clint’s smithy after a quick lunch at  Stardrop . You knock at the door, but as it is opens, it slides a little to the side and you decide to get in, you feel the heat of the furnace hitting your skin and start hearing something coming from the back.

“Oh Emily. Please, accept this ring as the proof of my love.” You hear the man saying  while on his knee, extending a ring to the air. “I made it myself out of your favorite stones!”

You try to immediately get out again, so you can comeback some other time, but you bump into some metal tools and they drop on the floor making a loud clingy noise.  Clint turns to you quickly, both scared and ashamed.

“What are you doing?!” he shrieks standing up as quick as he can and hiding the ring behind him.

“I… I am sorry, the door was open.” You reply nervously collecting the tools.

Both you and him pretend you didn’t see anything, but still stare at each other  with blushed faces. It gets worse when a  Junimo shows up right beside him and starts dancing and making a positive sign for you. You try not to pay attention to it while showing the golden ore and explaining you found it in your yard.

“It is really a golden ore. But these aren’t worth much.” Clint says. “ But you can melt them into golden bars.”

“Are they worth much?” you say hopefully thinking you might get some extra money.

“Not actually.”

You let your head down with a sigh.

Clint suddenly puts a heavy book on the balcony in front of you. It bumps so  hard on the wood you jump in surprise.

“But you can use them to upgrade your tools. And you can build things for your farm too.”

Clint pushes the book in your direction.

“You can keep it, I have another copy. It is for…  for… you take it and forget everything you saw, ok?!” he says angrily and you nod anxiously in agreement. “You can buy some ores from me, or you can find them in the mines in the mountains. Although I recommend you are careful there. I can buy stones too, if you find some. Mainly aquamarines,  I will buy any you find!”

You agree and take the book with you  wondering if the gold price being so low over there was also some magic from the valley.

When you arrive home, you start reading all those blueprints with a lot of interest. Many of them seem to be  very helpful for the farm. They maybe could relief you a little from the job  and help you make some more money. Also, with better tolls you could finish cleaning up the farm.

“What do you think, Dog?” you ask him, as he wags his tail sitting next to you on the porch. “Should I go on an adventure in the mines?”

You rub his belly and stand up. You were actually a bit excited to do it, seeing your farm grow and become more and more full of crops was making you  fell really good about yourself. It was not nearly looking as good as it used to be in the times of your grandfather, but you were starting to think that, maybe, you could get there.

You dress up in an old  jeans jumpsuit, get your backpack and improvised a belt, where you hang your sword and the old pickaxe. Dog  followes you in the path of the mountains and you climb all the way to the mines entrance. You arebreathing heavily, but not feeling as much tired as you would a couple of weeks ago.

You see an elevator, but it seems to be broken, so you take the stairs to the first floor. Dog sits by the top of it, crying because he can’t follow you.

“It is ok, boy! I will be back soon!” you yell to him from down there.

You look around and can already see many boulders scattered. It is a bit dark, but reading the book Clint gave you, you had learned to make quite a nice torch with the materials you had accumulated.

“Ok! Let’s do it.”

You take the pickaxe from your belt and start mining those rocks near the entrance.

That is when, with a wet sound, you are attacked by a slime.

You yell as it starts jumping on you, getting you all covered in green slime before you can think. You feel those slow down your movements, and can hear Dog barking from upstairs.

“Ok, you want to fight!? Let's fight!” you say, pulling your sword and making a twist with it, putting yourself in a movie worth fighting position.

As soon as it jumps towards you and you hit it with the sword, it explodes and gets you even more covered in green slime.

“EEEW!!” you complain trying to shake it off you.

As you dive deep in the mines, crashing the boulders and collecting some little copper ores, coal and rocks, you meet some more slimes that you slay with some effort. It starts even get a little fun, listening to the wet burst when you defeat them. You start collecting the weird bubbles they drop too, maybe they can be useful for something. All you can think about now is gathering things for the projects, for the farm...

… you had never felt so alive.

After quite a while you get to the fifth floor where, curiously, there is only a chest in the middle of the cave.

“What is this?” you ask, kneeling next to it.

The moment you get close, it opens by itself and reveals a nice looking sword and a piece of paper. You first get the sword and admire it: it is just a metal sword, but it is so much brighter and seems a lot better than the one you carry with you. You then, read the note:

“Each 5 floors, the elevator bleeps. Be my guest and take my treasures. If you come all the way down, I might have a present for you. - Mr.Qi ”

You stand up and put the note on your pocket, still looking at the sword. Is it really ok if you take it?

A wild screech comes from behind you... a full pack of bats come flying towards you, making you quickly decide it is time to get the hell out of there. You runaway screaming and waving your new sword as they attack you by scratching you and pulling your hair.

Dog runs after you outside, attacking some of the bats until they all fly away and you can finally stop running. You seat down, puffing and then drop lying by the lake’s shore.

“What the hell happened to you?”

You quickly stand up to see Sebastian staring at you, halfway to a cigarette drag, looking completely startled. 

“Will you ever NOT be in some kind of trouble when we meet?” he asks while applying some medicine to a bat scratch in your face. “You are vaccinated for  rabis , are you?”

“Ma... maybe I SHOULD go to the hospital this time.” you ponder, but then you remember how much it was charged of you last time.

Sebastian has his sleeves up, trying his best to make you some bandages. He doesn’t seem to be really good at that since his arms are all covered in patches he cut either too big or too small.

“I should wait for  Maru to arrive.” he says, finally giving up.

“No! I am fine, I swear. It’s just some scratches.”

“Will you explain the slime too?” he says putting his tongue out in an expression of disgust.

He shakes his hand trying to make some slime let go of it.

“I will take a shower when I get home.”

“You could do it here, I lend you some clothes. We have hot water. Do you have hot water?”

You turn to him seemingly offended, but then lower down your head with a sigh. No, you didn’t have hot water.

“Look, I don’t want to bother. You already did more than you should.” you say standing up from his computer chair and picking up your heavy bag, full of items you collected from the mines.

“Just stay, my mother will arrive soon, you can have dinner.” he insists. “Besides...”

Sebastian stops and swallows his breath, a little embarrassed.

“What?” you ask.

“Nothing...” he says, scratching the back of his neck. “I mean... it would be nice to catch up.”

You realize you haven’t seen each other in weeks, and as you do so, you put your bag down and sit again, a little blushed.

“Maybe... maybe a hot shower would be good.” you say, and you have the slight sensation that you see him open up a smile before tossing you some clothes and a towel.

You take the greatest shower you have had since you had gotten in the valley and get out of the bathroom stretching and happily chuckling with satisfaction. That is when you notice Robin, Demetrius and  Maru seated in the living room staring at you.

“Y/n?!” Maru asks surprised. “I thought  Seb was in the bathroom.”

Robin and her exchange a glance of compliance and start letting go little giggles as Demetrius smirks and raise one of his eyebrows. They all look at you as if they got you doing something wrong and you start blushing without understanding what.

Sebastian suddenly bursts out of the basement red as a tomato, grabs you by the wrist and, without saying a thing. He pulls you back to his room.

“Sorry about that, I didn’t hear them arriving.” he says locking the door and hitting his head on it once.

“I... I don’t get it, what happened?!” you say in confusion.

“NOTHING!” he yells, and scares you. “nothing...” he repeats a little lower.

You sit down on his computer chair and watch as he sits on his bed, still looking angry and embarrassed.

“Anyway... why were you at the mines.” he asks you, and you can see he is trying to calm down.

You explain to Sebastian all about your talk with Clint and start telling him your plans of building new gadgets for your farm, describing how well you have been doing at rebuilding your grandpa’s heritage. You get more and more excited, telling all about your fight with the slimes and even show to him one of the bubbles they had dropped. He takes it in his hands, very curious, but immediately gives it back to you when he notices how slimy they are. 

Sebastian asks if you can show him the rest of your loot, and you gladly do so. When you notice, you are seated on the floor and you are explaining to him about the copper ores and how you can melt them into copper bars to make some new sprinkles.

“I need some iron too, though. Maybe deeper in the mines I can find some.”

“Are you planning on going back there?!” he asks, outraged.

“Yes! Look!”

You show him your new sword and tell him how you found it, handing him the note that came with it.

“How... interesting.” he says. “Your life is such... such an adventure.”

Sebastian suddenly shuts himself, giving you back the note and looking away from you. He seems... sad.

“What... what happened? Did I do something wrong?” you ask.

“No, it’s nothing.” he replies.

All of a sudden, you see a small, black  Junimo show up on Sebastian’s shoulder. It sits down looking as sad and bothered as he is. You stare at it, but try not to react, but Sebastian notices and seems to think you are staring at him.

“I said it was nothing!” he roughly says.

“Sorry!”

When he notices how rude he just was, making you look aside and shrink yourself, he reaches towards you, as if to apologize, but the door suddenly opens and  Maru comes inside. She stops and gasps as, for her, it looks like Sebastian and you, seated on the floor and him with a hand on his shoulder... it seems something completely different.

“SORRY! I didn’t want to interrupt.” she says.

“Does your dictionary  have the definition of KNOCKING?! Nobody’s in this house has! Nobody's!” he complains, while standing up very fast. “WHAT?!”

“Dinner’s ready. Sorry.” she says quickly and leaves, closing the door behind her and running upstairs.

“Damn door. I lock it, but sometimes it just opens.” he says and extends his hand to you, to help you stand up. “Sorry about this, let’s eat.”

You both go upstairs, and Sebastian tells Robin the two of you are going to serve and get back down, but she immediately denies it and makes him sit. They have a bit of a discussion, but Robin is very incisive.

“Y/n is our guest too! You can’t keep a guest all to yourself.” she says and giggles.

He lets go a grunt enraged and you and him sit next to each other. Maru is giving you a glance with a little funny smile, as if something is happening, again. She then, seems to notice you are full of scratches.

“What happened to you?!” she says, alarmed.

“Oh... these?!” you say. “I... I fell! In the farm!”

“You must be working a lot.” Demetrius says. “How is your farm going?”

“It is going great!” you say, barely able to contain your excitement. Lately, talking about the farm makes you feel really nice. “I am gathering some materials to make some gadgets to help me with it!”

“You make gadgets too?!”  Maru asks excitedly.

You tell her about the book you had gotten from  clint and the two of you start a nerdy like discussion about the best ways you can use the materials to automatize your farm. She even offers herself to help you with them. Robin gets into the conversation too, giving you some tips of how to utilize wood and hardwood on your projects, and Demetrius starts telling you all about where to find some “materials with interesting properties” around. 

All of a sudden you are all excitedly talking, except for Sebastian, who isn’t even eating anymore, sunk on his chair with hands in pockets. He stands up in a rant and gets his plate.

“You come to my room when you are finished here.” he says almost bumping the chair in the table. “... if you want.” he mutters.

“Sebastian!” Demetrius calls in an assertive tone, but is completely ignored.

A heavy atmosphere falls onto you. Robin scratches the back of her neck,  Maru takes off her glasses to clean them and Demetrius rests his head on one of his hands, rubbing his eyes with a sigh.

“How old is this boy, Robin? How long will he keep acting as a teenager?” he says. “Sorry about that, y/n.”

“It... happens when Sam comes too.”  Maru says, embarrassed. “He... doesn’t seem to like us talking to his friends.”

“Sebby is a little...  temperamental.” Robin says.

You don’t even know what to say, but somehow you get a feeling they shouldn’t be talking about him like that. You see that one small black  Junimo sitting upset in front of the basement stairs.

“Can... can you excuse me? Sorry.” you ask, getting your plate and heading towards his room.

You knock at the door.

“It’s open.” you hear him reply in a very low tone.

He is seated by his computer desk, poking the food with a fork, looking more sad than angry. You sit next to him, without saying anything and start eating. The two of you remain in silence until you have finished. You keep staring at the plates without knowing what to say.

“I will take you home now.” he whispers, and stands up.

“It’s late, you don’t need to.” you say.

For your surprise, he tosses himself on his bed, with his back to you, and says:

“Bye, then.”

You stay put for a moment, but the little  Junimo pulls the sleeve from the hoodie he lent you and point at him, insistently.

“Sebastian.” you call.

“Just go, ok?” he replies, pulling the covers to himself.

The  Junimo pulls your sleeve even harder and you look at it with a revolted gesture, wondering what to do. It replies jumping on Sebastian’s bed and tapping him many times. And you simply do that. You tap him. Many times.

“What the fuck?!” he asks while turning to you and trying to hold your hands to make you stop.

“How can I know what to do when you don’t say anything?!!” you say while insisting on it. The poor  Junimo is  facepalming by your side.

“STOP!!” Sebastian yells.

“Say something!!”

“I AM SAYING FOR YOU TO STOP!” he replies doesn’t realizing you are talking to the  Junimo .

Sebastian pulls your hands so hard you stumble and fall on top of him in the bed, bumping your head on the wall beside it.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch!” you complain, putting your hands on your wounded forehead.

“Sorry, sorry.” he says trying to make you put your hands down so he can look at it.

The two of you slowly stop moving to realize you are practically seated on his lap, and your faces are very close together. Suddenly there is no more pain in your forehead, but your face is feeling very hot. As Sebastian simply stares at you, deep in the eyes and doesn’t move, you don’t know how to act, so you stay still in the same position.

“Well you... you were slapping me, I had to stop you.” he says and you see his face start blushing. “Can you get away from me now?”

“Can you let go off my wrists?” you reply in the same accusative tone.

Both of you quickly move and sit side by side on the bed.

“You were acting weird, I had to do something.” you mutter. “I mean... It was not something bright, but at least you are normal again, now.”

“You said you were going home, I was just lying down to sleep.”

“ Ew , you don’t even brush your teeth?!” you mock on him.

Sebastian punches you in the arm and the both of you chuckle, as the little  Junimo makes a little satisfied sound and disappears. You and Sebastian sigh and he smiles.

“Hey Y/n... can I...” he mumbles, while picking on his toes. “Can I sleep over your house today?”

“What?”

“What? Is it going to bother you?” he says, swallowing his breath. “If so, forget about it.”

“No, no! It is just that... I don’t have much space, you know...”

“I have a sleeping bag.” he shrugs.

You can only bring yourself to nod at him.


	9. Chapter 9

When Sebastian lies down, Dog immediately cuddles up to him and wags his tail, staring up at you with an innocent look.

“Dog... leave Sebastian alone.” you say.

“It’s fine.” Sebastian says, petting him, and Dog stares at you with a winner growl.

You had walked together to the farm, and although Sebastian spent some time complaining about you not wanting to go by motorcycle, you didn’t talk much. He watched as you swept the floor for him, and tried to take the broom from you, but you didn’t let. Then he lied down beside your bed, after the two of you brushed teeth awkwardly at the same time, trying not to look at each other in the tiny restroom.

“Y/n...” he called you, and you turned to the edge of your bed to look at him. “Have you...”

He stayed quiet for a moment.

“No, it is nothing.” he said.

“Just say it.” you replied and poked his face from up your bed.

“Stop! What is with you and touching me?” he complained, but with a small smirk. “Give me some space.”

“Say what you were going to say, Mr. Respect my personal boundaries.” you mock on him.

“I was going to ask something... Have you ever... felt like...” he seems to struggle with his words. “Felt like there is no place for you in this world. Like you are a huge pariah and no one understands you or respects you...”

He looks at you and seems to notice you are paying deep attention, even though he can see just a little bit of your face.

“Like you don’t belong.” he sighs.

“Do you feel that way?” you ask in a whisper.

Sebastian stays quiet for a moment, looking up. He has that same sad face you had seen him do when you were talking about your adventures in the mines, you see a glimpse of that little  Junimo showing up by his pillow.

“I do...” he finally murmurs and turns his back to you.

You lean to touch his shoulder but as you do so, Dog stands up abruptly and you end up falling from the bed by his side. Sebastian bursts in laughs to see you mutter some curses, and sits down to help you recompose.

“You ruined a perfectly dramatic moment.” Sebastian says.

“I was just going to tap your shoulder.” you say, while standing on your knees and rubbing your forehead, but then you stop and look Sebastian deep in his eyes. He backs off a little, surprised by the seriousness in your sight. “I know this feeling you are saying Sebastian. I had it for so long back in the city.”

You sit next to him.

“My father, he is a gambler, you know? We lived together but I barely saw him, because he was always out, in a cassino or something like it. My life was just... working, getting back home and getting distracted by playing videogames or watching something.” you say, while looking down. “Nothing was fun anymore, and as I am not very good with social situations, I never had friends. So... it was pretty lonely.”

Sebastian gets out of the sleeping bag and hugs his legs, leaning his head on his knees to pay attention to you.

“So when I first met your family I thought: wow! This must be nice! Having a nice family, that sits together during lunch and dinner to talk about things. Why does he complain about it?!”

He turns his head to the other side, grunting.

“But... I get you now.” you whisper. “You have your own kind of problems.”

You slowly put your hand on top of Sebastian’s, and he looks at it from the corner of his eye.

“And it’s ok.” you say. “I don’t judge you. I... I can see how deeply it seems to affect you. I... I just want to understand.”

“You do?” he whispers so quietly you almost can’t hear it.

“Just... talk to me. I will listen.” you say.

Sebastian turns to you and slowly closes his hand around yours, gently. You get stuck in that moment for a while, and your head goes far back to a memory you had long forgotten:

He looks so angry while crying that way, hidden under a table while everyone else plays around. It seems really unfair, as it is his birthday you are celebrating. The little cony hat is crushed by his feet when you find him. He tries to clean his tears as soon as he notices you come in, under the table cloth, and sit next to him.

“What do you want?!” he asks angrily.

“I was looking for you. I want you to open my gift!” you say. “Come on!”

He shakes his hand so you can’t pull him and crosses his arms with a frown, you can see him fighting tears.

“What happened?” you ask legitimately worried.

“NOTHING!”

“Come on,  Seb ! I saw you crying!”

“I was not... I was not...”

He bursts in tears, trying to wipe his face, unsuccessfully.

“It is always all about  Maru . It is my birthday, but my mom is only paying attention to her, because she keeps crying around! She is doing it to upset me.”

“ Seb , she is a toddler. They cry a lot.”

“Get out of here!” he pulls you aside and hides his face in his arms still crying a lot.

You get out from under the table, just to come back a few minutes later, pulling something behind you. He is just sobbing quietly by then.

“What... what is that??”

“Your gifts.” you say. “I brought them to you.”

Sebastian looks at all the gifts you piled up together on top of a table cloth and dragged all the way to that table. There are also some candy and birthday snacks mixed along with them.

“You don’t want to go to your party, I brought it to you!” you say. “Let’s see what you got!”

His face seems to brighten up and he nods at you, getting one of the packages and handing another one to you so you can open it together. You spend the whole party there, playing with his new toys and reading the comic books he got, also eating the birthday snacks. You sing happy birthday to him, and run to pick some cake for the two of you. He is smiling a lot by then.

“What a failure.” he says when you finally hear his mother calling. “I spent this whole party here and she didn’t even notice.”

“Well, to me it was the BEST PARTY EVER!” you say.

“Do you really think so?” he says, and you can see some tears coming to his eyes.

“Sure  Seb . You are the coolest kid around. I love hanging with you.”

He smiles to you and you get back into playing until your mothers find you under the table.

You and Sebastian lower down your hands, but he doesn’t let go from yours. A single tear streams down his cheek and he cleans it up and sniffs a little perplexed.

“I... I liked you so much.” he says with a sob. “You were... annoying but... you were so nice to me.” he turns around to avoid more tears. “What the fuck is this?!”

He finally lets go from your hand, almost tossing it aside.

“I am sorry that you feel so left aside.” you whisper.

“ Maru ...  Maru is so bright and goes around with her ‘real job’. She is sociable and the perfect daughter, you know. It gets hard to compete... ANYWAY, what the fuck just happened?”

He stands up and rubs his eyes.

“Why don’t I remember a lot about you when we are apart, but when we are together all I can remember is you?” he says. “I... I am so confused right now.”

“I am sorry.” you say as he seems a bit angry at you. “I don’t know what is happening either.”

Dog starts barking at him, and that seems to take him off his confusion rampage, so he just takes a deep breath and sits next to you. He simply leans his head on your shoulder and quietly cuddles up to you.

“I kind of like it.” he whispers.

You blush and don’t say anything, just letting it be for what seems to be a long moment. After that both you and him simply move apart and each goes to their own beds, whispering only a quiet good night to each other.

You don’t tell him, but you like it too.


	10. Chapter 10

You wake up with Dog barking at you, his food bowl in his mouth. As his tail waggs, Sebastian moans in complaint, as it hit his face, harder and harder.

“Come on Dog...” you mutter. “What time is... FUCK!”

Sebastian stands up in a jump when you scream, and as you do the same, you bump into each other, but you just move around him and start getting yourself ready for the day.

“I overslept! I overslept!” you say, as  Sebastain keeps asking what is happening. “I need to do my chores.”

“It’s Sunday, come on!” he says, with a yawn.

“I am a FARMER. We don’t get Sundays! If I don’t accomplish everything in this schedule, I will fall behind! If I fall behind...”

“What?”

“I CAN’T FALL BEHIND!”

You quickly get into the bathroom and change your clothes, then run outside to start caring for your plants. You are halfway done when Sebastian finally comes out, still looking sleepy.

“I made some coffee.” he says giving you a mug. “I drank it first because, apparently you only have one mug... do you need help?”

You pick up the coffee and drink it up in almost one gulp, giving it back to Sebastian and getting back to harvesting your green beans. You simply put the basket in his hands and make him follow you around while you put them in. When you finish, you ask him to drop half of them in the shipping box.

“Don’t... don’t you sell these to Pierre?” he asks.

“He only buys so much... The rest I send for the city to export.” you reply stretching and twisting your wrists.

“Hey, look at you, already producing more than the market demand.” he mocks, but there is some true compliment in his voice.

You look aside, flattered.

“So... can we go have breakfast now?”

“You can go, I have to clean up some terrain.” you reply, taking your scythe and your axe from your “utility belt” and making a cool twist with both of them. 

You see Sebastian’s eyes almost shine to see you do that, but he quickly reverts his face to apathy as he sees you notice.

“ Aham ... can I help?” he asks.

You give him the scythe and teach him which weeds he needs to cut for fiber and which he can cut for hay, you leave him to it and go cut some trees.

It is almost lunchtime when you finally finish. Carrying the log  stacks you’ve got on your shoulders, you go check on Sebastian. He is all sweaty and seems exhausted, but his piles are way less then you use to get.

“How do you do this?!” he complains looking at the calluses on his hands while you walk to the city. “And did I see you carrying like, 30 pieces of log? How strong are you?”

“I think it is the magic of the valley or something.” you reply.

You are happily walking with your backpack on your back, some green beans packages and your axe in hands. Sebastian barely walks, he seems to be really tired. Both of you are dirty from the work in the farm.

“What do you think is for lunch?” you ask. “Sebastian?”

He is irresponsive and you soon notice why. 

Abigail passes by you, waves only at you and then puts her nose up, and walking past Sebastian. You can almost see the scene in slow motion, her purple hair waving away as he stares concerned.

You watch Sebastian go from concerned, to bothered, to angry in just a couple of seconds. He then grabs your arm and impulses you, so you keep walking.

“Is everything ok?” you ask him.

“Yes.” he simply replies, and you don’t know how to insist on it. 

The two of you  get to Pierre and sell the green beans and get to the  Stardrop Saloon  to eat lunch, but Sebastian’s mood is completely different now. You had already gotten used to  his bit of a quiet personality and moody ways, but  he is really grumpy while eating. You barely exchange a word.

“Nice to see you are  doing so well!” Gus says when you hand him a package of green beans you had saved for him.

You had gotten used to have lunch there so many times that you started  chatting with Gus. He asked a lot about the farm and your fresh vegetables  and  you eventually started taking some to him.

Sebastian observed while you happily talked about how many more yards  you had cleaned up and the new seeds you got to plant. When you and Gus finally finished talking and you turned to him, he was smiling.

“What is with you?” you ask as you leave the saloon.

“ What?” Sebastian asks as he lights up in a cigarette and  offers one to you.

“I…I don’t think I should smoke anymore. I need to stay strong for the farm work.” you reply,  pushing his hand slowly.

“He… this country life has really gotten into you, right?” he chuckles. “ Remember you didn’t even want to be a farmer when you got here?”

The two of you stop at the sight of a confusion. An elder man on a wheelchair is  lecturing a young red hair about something related to  his mailbox. It was Penny, the beautiful girl that got you all  shy when you first met her. And you had seen the elder man before, in front of the blue house near the bridge, he always seemed grumpy and never even looked at you when you passed by. His wife, though, always waved at you with a smile.

“I didn’t ask you for anything! Just put them back there!” he says in a rough tone.

“But Mr. Mullaner, I was just trying to help!” she says, shrinking her shoulders, embarrassed.

“I didn’t say I wanted help!!” he yells.

You suddenly see a  gray  Junimo sitting on the elder man's lap. He looks very tired and  annoyed, as if he couldn’t barely move.

“Hey,  hey ! What is going on here?” you hear a voice come from behind you.

Alex comes running, grabbing both your attention and Sebastian's. You feel your heartbeat increases to see him.

“Hey grandpa, why are you yelling at Penny?” Alex asks,  leaning beside his chair.

“He was having some difficulty with the mailbox, so I just… took the letters for him. ” She says embarrassed. “I am really sorry if I did something wrong.”

“ Aah , don’t worry Penny.  It is my fault, he has been asking me to lower this mailbox for days and I always forget.” Alex says.

“I didn’t ask for help!” the man yells,  punching the arm of his chair.

“ Grandpa, please, be nice.” Alex whispers.

“Hey.” you say out of nowhere, without even knowing why  you are getting in the middle of that.

Sebastian comes after you looking concerned.

“Oh, hi farmer.” Alex says, surprised.

“Hello, y/n.” Penny says quietly.

“Actually, Penny… maybe you owe George an apology.” you say while scratching the back of your neck, a little clumsy. “I… I had a colleague at work, you know… she was a  wheelchair user too and once I did the same thing as you and she got very upset with me. She told me we can’t simply assume people need interference without asking. Independence is something really important for all of us and…”

The three of them are staring at you. Alex  is giving you a smirk, he seems to agree to what you are saying. Sebastian looks impressed and  Penny is both a little upset and embarrassed.

“I… I am very sorry Mr. Mullaner. I thought I was doing something nice.” Penny says with a sob.

George looks aside, still grumpy, but when he sees she is about to cry, his expression softens and he  takes the letters from her hands.

“It is ok kid. Just ask me next time. Thank you for taking these for me.” He mumbles. “I am just not in a good mood today.”

George turns his chair aside to get back to his house, but for a moment, he stops and looks at you. His frown becomes a little smile and he leaves without saying anything  else .

“Thanks for giving me this lesson.” Penny says , but she still has some tears  in her eyes. “I… I need to get back to Vincent and Jas now.”

She leaves in a  fast pace as you, Sebastian and Alex watch.

“Hey, thanks for this.” Alex says. “I think grandpa got a little happy.”

“I just wished she hadn’t gotten so upset.” you say, feeling a little bad.

“Why? You were right.” Sebastian says, shrugging.  “She will think twice before helping someone again now. You ruined a perfect good girl.”

You turn to him looking concerned, but he pushes your arm and chuckles.

“I am kidding.” He says.

“Soo…” Alex says, while glancing from you to Sebastian. “The two of you are getting along pretty well,  hn ? Never  though I would see the cool kid all dirty with mud.”

Sebastian stares at him with despise, while Alex chuckles, looking at him with a  condescend stare. You feel the deep irony  in Alex's voice when he calls Sebastian “cool kid".

“Can I help with this mail box?” you ask, taking your axe from your belt.  “It will be quick.”

Alex nods and you cut the  wood stump a little short, then fix the top of the mailbox back on it.

“Thanks! I was actually taking a very long time because I didn’t really know how to solve this situation.” He said. “You have some nice skills, farmer."

He offers his fist for you to bump in  an appreciation gesture and this time, you reply it. Suddenly both of you feel some goosebumps and a memory pops up in front of your eyes.

Alex is  seated on the dock with his back to you . He seems to be tossing rocks in the ocean while enjoying the summer sun. His shoulders are all covered in  a heavy  layer of sunscreen.

You had just arrived so you two hadn’t met yet, and this little prank would be the best way to start your Stardew summer. Tip toes, you walked towards him, ready to push him into the water.

You got ready and moved forward with all you got, but he just inclined to the left and you ended up falling in the water  with the impulse. When you emerged, he was bending himself with laughter.

“How did you notice me! I was quiet like a spy.” you complain.

“I always know when you are around.” He says. “You smell lik e dirt!”

“YOU SMELL LIKE DIRT!” you show him your tongue and he  gestures back with his.

“Rain dirt. That good rain dirt smell.” He says, kneeling and  offering his hand to you. “I am glad you arrived! I was getting bored.”

“You could play with Sam and Sebastian. They are cool kids.” You say while taking his hand.

“No one is cooler than you.” He replies.

You suddenly put all your weigh down and pull Alex into the water with you.  You both laugh and spend the rest of the evening playing in the sea.

“ I remember you!” Alex says and holds your wrist, pulling you suddenly for a hug.

It catches you by surprise, and you can’t barely move between his strong arms .

“Y/n! Why didn’t you tell me it was you!?” he says  backing off and staring at your blush face, then hugging you once again. “Man, we were the best of friends back then! Where have you been?! What  were you up to all these years?”

You start muttering something, but you are so shaken by the sudden memory come back that you can’t speak. Also, because  you can’t remember the last time somebody hugged you.

As you turn aside with embarrassment, you see Sebastian  staring at you with a nervous expression.

“Come on, I will ask granny to make you some cookies so you can tell me all about you!” Alex says, pulling you by your shoulders. “ah… you can come too...” he says to Sebastian.

The smell of the cookies filled the air with that sweet aroma. The elder lady comes and takes the flower shaped cookies from the oven and put them into a plate, serving it in front of you. You thank her and she smiles, giving you a gentle tap on your shoulder. Alex was telling you all about his  gridball trainings and that he had very recently moved to Stardew. He seems very excited when he talks about the sport, so you let him speak, a little hypnotized by the whole situation. Sebastian is seated across from you, looking very uncomfortable. He seems about to stand up and just go away.

“ You seem a little jacked yourself “ Alex says giving you a little  tap on your arm. “All this farm work must be a pretty nice workout.”

“It kind of is.” You reply, rubbing your arm.

“Hey y/n.” Sebastian calls, his arms are crossed and he has a frown. “It is almost 4, didn’t you have pass by the smithy? Also, I have to get back home, I have a code to do.”

“Why don’t you go? I  make y/n company to the  smithy. We have a lot to catch up.” Alex puts his hand  on top of yours, staring at Sebastian with a defiant look. “We used to be best summer pals, you know?”

Sebastian gives back the look and lean on the chair, speaking between his locked jaws:

“It’s on the way to my house. I can take y/n.”

“ No it is not.” Alex says, making a frown.

“I like taking the river path.” Sebastian responds, standing up and grabbing a cookie. “Thank Mrs. Mullaner for the cookies.”

Sebastian bites the cookie as if it is a threat, and comes towards you, grabbing your arm to drag you away. For your surprise, Alex holds your other arm, and for just a moment you have the glimpse of both of them doing the same as kids.

Alex suddenly open his hand and sighs.

“ Y/n. Actually, it is better if we catch up later, anyway.” He says while tiding his hair up. “ Wanna have dinner someday at  stardrop ? ”

“Ah… sure.” You say, a little embarrassed.

“It is a date then.” Alex says and smiles at you .

Sebastian gasps and practically drags you out of the house, barely leaving you some time to thank and wave goodbye to Evelyn and George, that just grunts in response.

“ What was that?” you say, shaking your arm so Sebastian lets go of it.

“What?” he asks  violently picking up a cigarette,  having difficulty to ignite his lighter.

You tap his hand to make him drop the cigarette and he looks at you, outraged.

“You smoke too much.” You complain. “Now tell me what just happened.”

“Nothing happened.” He says, putting the lighter back in his pocket.  “I didn’t know you had such a futile taste for people. Penny I can understand, she's pretty, but Alex??  The  sports guy? What are you, a teen in high school?”

You gasp  and blush at his words, then cross your arms and reply:

“Oh, so I should go for the bad boy?”

“WHAT ?!” his face goes red.

“What?? Are you jealous? I can’t  meet up with a childhood friend you are  gonna get all  like that?” 

“Like what?” he almost yells , but  ahams and repeats in a lower tone. “Like what? I am totally normal. Also, you weren’t THAT friends.”

“As long as I remember, we were pretty much friends, yes.”

He turns to you and points his finger at your face:

“I knew it! You had a “moment” back there, didn’t you? Are you going to  use these magical powers of yours to keep luring people to you? Why all of a sudden did you get so sociable? Distributing vegetables, solving discussions? What are you going to do next? Fix up the community center  single handedly?”

You stare at him, both confused and irritated, until he gets  embarrassed and takes his finger away from your face.

“Sorry.” he mutters  under his breath. “I didn’t mean that.”

“I don’t know what is with you , but I don’t think I want to deal with it right now .”  You say, turning your back to him, in the direction of the bridge. “Maybe we  should  talk later.”

You hear him swallow his breath , and then mumble something, but you don’t turn back to him.

“Ok, then.” He  whispers. “See you later.”

“See you.” You whisper back to him, and both of you go away trough different paths.

You feel something hurt inside your chest and slightly turn to him. That little black Junimo is sobbing, seated on his shoulder.


	11. Chapter 11

You are getting back to the farm after leaving your axe with  clint for an upgrade. He says that after it you will finally be able to  ger rid of those big logs in the farm and you can’t barely wait. It cost you a bit too much and you will have to eat some “wild salads” Leah taught you how to prepare for a while, but you expect that soon it will compensate.

A sound comes from the lake and it seems to be from some hurt animal, so, out of curiosity, you go check, your hand on the sword handle. To your surprise, you find a man sleeping in the docks. That usually drunk man.

You think about just leaving him be, but you look at the sky and remember that the weather prediction said a storm might come in the evening. As you step closer, you see a blue  Junimo seated next to him with hiccups. He waves at you and point at the man.

“Excuse me.” you call.

He mumbles and gives a little snore, then turn to the side.

“Sir, excuse me.” you try once again, getting closer.

As he doesn’t seem to wake up, you kneel next to him and poke his arm. He slowly opens his eyes, grunting, but when he sees you, he screams and you fall seated with surprise.

“Sorry! Sorry!” you say. “Are you ok?”

“What gives?! Buh... why did you wake me up?!” he complains, slowly sitting while rubbing his head.

“It is just that... it is about to rain, you should go home.” you say.

He looks at the sky, squinting his eyes and grunts once again, then takes a can that you hadn’t seen by his side, opening it up and taking a sip of it. He picks another one and offers to you.

“No, thanks.” you say, gently waving your hands with a smile.

He shrugs and puts it back in his pile saying:

“More for me then.”

You thought he was going to stand up and go home when he saw the dark clouds in the sky, but he seems to be certainly staying there with his beers. You wait for a while, but as he doesn’t say anything, you stand up to go.

“So... you are from the city?” he asks.

“Ye... yes. I am from  Zuzu .” you reply, a bit uncertain of what to do.

“And what are you doing around these lost parts?” he asks while taking another sip.

You kneel next to him and tell him about your grandfather’s farm and how you came for a fresh start while he drinks with his eyes lost on the lake shore.

“Nice. Seems nice to do something like it. You are very brave.” he says. “Sorry that I was so rude to you that day.”

You remember him shouting things to you when you were going to Sam’s with Sebastian, and shake your head negatively.

“I was really staring. I am sorry.”

“That is what we do when we see a loser tripping around, isn’t it?” he says, and takes a big gulp of his beer. “We stare.”

“I really didn’t have the intention.” you whisper. “I wouldn’t like if it was with me. Besides, who am I to judge? When I drink it is pretty ugly.”

He chuckles a little and opens another can.

“I wished it was ugly only when I drank.” he says, and looks down. “But thanks for not judging.”

He turns to you and offers his hand.

“Name is Shane.”

“I am y/n.”

You shake his hand and the two of you fall in silence while he drinks.

“Sometimes it feels like nothing will work out, you know?” he says and tosses a rock in the lake.

It bounces three times before disappearing in the water.

“No matter how much I try, or the things I do, things will always be the same shit, and life will always be this big shitty repetition of stupid events.”

You  keep looking at him with a serious face. You feel pity, but you don’t want to show it. You feel like it is the wrong feeling.

“It’s ok.” he says as if he notices you trying not to show it. “It’s pretty pathetic.”

“It is not.” you reply. “I... I really understand what you are saying.”

You touch your wrist as you remember your lonely hours in front of a  Joja company computer.

“Life is pretty shitty sometimes.” you say.

He looks at you and a little smile come to his face.

“Yeah.”

You stay there a little longer until he has finished his beer, so he stands up and cleans his shorts from the dirt of the deck.

“You should go home. It’s going to rain.” and as he says that, he goes away, his hands stuck in the pockets of his  Joja jacket.

You see the little blue  Junimo waving at you from his shoulder, almost falling off, dizzy. You wave back and go back to the farm. On the way, you start thinking about all these  Junimos that keep showing up near the villagers and, when you notice, you are in front of  Rasmodious ’ tower.

“Hello, what brings you here?” he asks when he opens the door.

He serves you some tea while you explain to him what has been happening to you.

“I see... the spirits of the forest must have grown connected to these people. They tend to get attached to somehow broken things.” he says, sitting in front of you.

“Broken? But Leah doesn’t seem broken to me.” you say while taking a sip from the tea.

“Everyone is a little broken, don’t you think?” he wisely says. “Maybe they want you to help them, like they want you to fix that broken community center. How is that going, by the way?”

“I have been collecting the things they asked...” you say. “But I don’t know where to find a lot of them... how can I fix a person?”

“I see... maybe as you complete some of the bundles, you they will help you with that.”  Rasmodius scratches his beard in a thoughtful way. “Fix is hardly the word. Assist... land a helping hand... incentive, perhaps. A little touch of someone else can change another life.”

“But why me,  Rasmodius ? Why not any other of my cousins? Some other random from the city.”

“You doubt yourself too much, don’t you think?” he says, and raise his eyebrows. “Maybe that is it. Maybe the touch you need in your life is the touch you CAN give in other people. Perhaps... just like the touch you already have given in those old friends of yours.”

Both Sebastian and Alex come to your mind. You remember how much fun you used to have with each of them as kids. But then, you remember Sebastian’s sad posture as he walked away from you earlier.

“Then I think I might be doing everything wrong.” you sigh.

“Things don’t always go in a straight line, my friend.”  Rasmodius says and smiles to you. “Trust yourself as much as the  Junimos do, then I am sure things will work out.”

His words become distant as you see the smoke of the tea coming up. Next thing you see, you are waking up in your cottage.


	12. Chapter 12

Parsnips,  parsnips, parsnips.  You are running in heavy rain to collect all of them so you can plant some more.

“ Ugh! I need a raincoat… and some fucking boots!” you complain while  trying to shake off of you all that heavy mud. “I don’t even have an umbrella, what is wrong with me?”

It was the third day of rain in a row. At first you really enjoyed  it, not having to water the plants saved you some effort and time, you even got to go to the mines to get some more ores for your sprinkle plans, but when you noticed how hard it was to walk around in the mud, your feelings about that rain changed.

“I am  gonna get sick.” You say when you finally get inside,  and Dog comes after you, shaking himself and spreading water around. “Seriously?”

He cries  in an apologetic tone while you look around to see how many  drips you have inside. You don’t even have enough  buckets to put under them.

“Maybe I should save for  getting Robin to cover those up for me.” You sigh.

You hear a knock at the door and your heart skips a beat. You have been like this lately, looking around in search of one of those two. 

You had a glimpse of Sebastian going to the beach the other day, and you really wanted to go check on him, but your last awful interaction made you think twice. You ended up not going after him. 

Alex you saw when you were running in the rain to get to Clint's, so you could grab your axe. He happily waved at you, and seemed to walk in your direction so you would meet. But, afraid he would speak about the dinner he had invited you to, you hurried up, for him not to catch up to you.

“There is your Axe. Just go now.” Clint said in a n inpatient way. “I have some business to attend to.”

“Please, please, please. Just let me stay a while, he will get to his house soon. I will do anything.”

And now you had to find some  aquamarine stone to deliver to Emily.

You open the door slightly and check.  It is Shane, his jacket hoodie is up and he is carrying a bag.

“Oh, hi!” you say,  opening up the door. “What's up?”

“So…  buh …” Shane mutters,  looking aside a little embarrassed. “I came to… I am here to… well, take these.”

He hands you a bag full of eggs .

“Wow! This is really nice!” you say, with a smile. “Thanks.”

Shane  keeps looking away from you, but a smirk comes to his lips.

“It is a thank you gift. For that day you lent me an ear.” He says. “After you eat them, you can paint the shells for the egg festival or something.”

“Egg festival?” you ponder.

“It’s a festival in the town… there are  quite many of these during the seasons. A couple of days from now, check the calendar.” he says. “Buh… I… I hope I see you there. It is kind of fun.”

You nod to him still smiling a lot about the eggs.

“Come in!” you invite him. “I will fry a couple of these for us! Actually, I will microwave them… hehe.”

Shane stares at you with a  bit of a disgusted face and shakes his head negatively.

“I have eaten already.” He says.

“Ok… but wait just a minute then.”

You run inside and rush to put the eggs in your small fridge, and then come back with the same bag, full of parsnips.

“Here! A thank you – thank you gift.”

“Hey… pretty cool, farmer.” He says with a nice smile.  “You are nice. Maybe we can drink some cold ones together sometime.”

You nod in agreement and Shane  says goodbye, leaving with a nice  happy aura. The  Junimo that follows him does not seem so drunk, and you have the sensation that his blue is a little lighter.

You eat a microwaved egg and  get ready to face your wet way to  the city, to sell Pierre some parsnips and also give some of them to Gus. 

You decide to take the forest path, so you can  pick up some salmonberries that, you saw on  tv , must be in season right now.  But as soon as you leave the farm, you have to run to hide yourself  behind a bush. Sebastian is seated next to the river, his hoodie up, and he seems to be tossing stones in the water.

You are about to get back to the farm to take the bus stop path, when Abigail shows up and sits next to him. You feel like you should get out of there as soon as possible, but your body simply doesn’t move.

“ So… you are talking to me again?” he asks her in a rough tone.

“Yeah, I think I have given you enough of a  cold shoulder.” She replies. “I kind of miss you sometimes.”

“Don’t say that.” He says, while tossing another stone.

“Sam said you have been even more dramatic than the usual.  So, I assumed you needed some Abby around.” she bumps her shoulder on his.

“Stop toying with me, Abby.” He says.

“Come on,  Seb …” she says and sighs. “Things were going so well before.”

“I can’t keep  going like that.  I don’t want to wake up  and need to discover if today you are my girlfriend or just a friend. If  you will kiss me or toss me aside because you don’t want to “play" with me today.” He tosses a stone so  hard it just sinks. “ I am a fucking human, with emotions.”

“Are you, though?  You could had come after me too, you know?” she complains.

“I am fucking tired of running around after you .”

“ So, you don’t even want to be friends anymore?”

“Can we be friends? Are you my friend, Abigail? Does a friend treat someone with this kind of coldness? I sent you a fucking text, did you want me to knock on your door and beg on my knees for you to talk to me??” he stands up. “And, man, the reason you were mad with me? I can’t have another friend, now? I need to get stuck with only you and Sam, and that is it.”

“I am  sorry, Seb . I got jealous. I never saw you getting along so well with someone else all of a sudden. Y/n came out of nowhere, I was afraid…” she gets quiet while putting her hand on her heart.

“Afraid of what?”

“ That you would like y/n more than you like me…”

“You don’t have that right !” he is almost yelling by now.

“ I know, I am really sorry. I don’t want to ruin our friendship over that.”

“ So, you, please, decide if you are my friend or not, and then you come talk to me.”

By now you are hyper ventilating, you feel your body colder than it has ever been  and your legs simply do not respond to your order of running away from there. Also,  you can’t see it with the rain, but all the three of you are crying.

“Please,  Seb .” Abigail sweetly says as she stands up and  touches his chest. “Don’t be mad at me. I really, really like you. I just don’t think I can be your girlfriend .”

“Ok then.” He says, with a sob. “Friends…”

She snuggles up to his chest and he hugs her gently.

“Please, Abby.  Let it be the last time we have this discussion.” He whispers.

Finally, your legs respond and you run away as fast as you can  back to the farm.  You simply drop everything you were carrying and the  vegetables scatter all over the floor. Dog comes running to your aid and you hug him and cry.

You just  hug Dog and cry for the rest of the day.


	13. Chapter 13

You giggle as Leah makes a frown when she sees the eggshell in your hand. No one of the colors match, and the patterns are so sloppy they seem like broken spots.

“I guess I don’t have much talent for  this.” you say, leaving it in your very weird painted eggs pile.

“I mean… you have a… valid vision.”  She tries to comfort you.

“Y/n! Those are awful! I will need to redo them or you will scare Jas and Vincent!” Emily says as she sees them, and you laugh again.

“I am really sorry.” You say wiping a tear of joy. “ Maybe next time I should just help hiding the ones you paint.

“You better really hide these.” Emily mocks and the three of you laugh.

“But aren’t you going to participate?” Leah asks. “There is a prize for the winner.”

“Don’t bother, Abigail wins every year.” Emily says. “That girl is almost an egg detector.”

The mention of Abigail makes you shake uncomfortable on the chair you are seated. The image of Sebastian and her hugging so tenderly messes up with something in your head that you don’t even understand.

“I am not good with finding anything. I mostly lose them. Can’t find my own keys in my pocket.” You say while painting another egg, to Emily’s  despair.

You see  the people in town getting everything set and it gives you a good feeling.  The square is so colorful . Everyone is gathering around, eating all sorts of eggs prepared by Gus, exchanging chocolate eggs and  chatting. You are seated on a table along with Leah and Elliott when you see Alex  arrive.

He comes along with that blonde girl who once criticized your clothes and when you wave at him, he looks excited, but as she stares at him with disgust, he simply turns his face around and ignores you. He puts his arm around her shoulder and they go down the square, to stand near the river.

“Young folks today…” Elliott says as he was paying attention to what happened. “It is sad to see how much we have lost of passion for each other. Good  old-fashioned romance, loving stares with dramatic twists and great promises of love.”

“What are you talking about Elliott.”  Leah chuckles as you blush. “You are not that old.”

“But I sure belong to another time.” He turns to Alex and Haley .

Alex is eating eggs in silence while Haley has her arms crossed  with a bored look.

“No romance, at all.” He says with a sigh. “ Maybe I am a bit old fashioned. What do you think y/n?”

“I… I… I don’t. I don’t understand anything about that. I am not good with relationships.” You stutter.

“Me neither , pal .” Leah says while drinking the  punch. “All my boyfriends and girlfriends were kind of jerks. This is specially delicious, what is in it?”

You see Elliott lean his face on his hand, as his eyes shine while glancing at Leah. You think you can almost see his sight of her, flowers framing her face and a low beautiful love song playing on the background. You giggle at the thought of it and he notices, turning to you with a blush.

Then you see them. Sebastian, Sam and Abigail  are talking under a lamp post. Sam has a very red nose and some tears in his eyes,  he seems to sneeze sometimes. Abigail seems to be laughing at him and Sebastian is just smoking a cigarette with a grin. They seem very close at that moment.

Sebastian’s eyes cross yours suddenly, and you quickly turn aside,  as if you were just looking around, at the town's decor.  When you glance again, he is not looking at you anymore. You feel a terrible mix of relief and sadness.

“Attention everyone!” Lewis screams  from the middle of the square. “Gather around! It is time for our greatest event of the day!!”

Jas and Vincent let go shrieks of emotion and run  to the center of the square, jumping with excitement. You see Abigail trying to pull both Sebastian and Sam  with her, but just Sam  follows after. Sebastian even seems to hide himself behind the post.

“Y/n, let's hunt some eggs.” You hear Maru call you and, all of a sudden, she has pulled you from your chair and is dragging you down the square.

You almost bump into Abigail when you arrive.

“Hi y/n!” she greets you with a smile.

“Y/n!! So long no see! What happened? You never showed up again to  play videogames.”  Sams says.

“So… sorry, I  have been  busy with the farm.” You reply  nervously.

“ You can always come to my house to hang out when you want.” Sam tells you, with a nice smile.

Lewis screams for the game to start and Abigail goes out running like her life depended on it. Maru grabs your  wrist and pulls you along with her.

“Abby wins EVERY YEAR.”  Maru says while the two of you  shake some bushes after hidden eggs. “ Competing with her is kind of hard, right?”

You turn to her, startled and by the compliance look she is giving you,  you notice she is not talking about the egg hunt. You put your head down and gulp.

“ Seb thinks I don’t know anything about him… but I can read him like a book. He is my brother after all.” She says , giving you an egg she has just found. “I get sad when he is sad too…”

“ Maru I…”

“I really thought it was about Abigail… again.” She says, taking off her glasses and looking straight to your eyes. “ This THING between them, I don’t think it is healthy. I like Abigail but she kind of… uses him.”

“ Maru we shouldn’t… I am not entitled to know anything like that.” You whisper,  pressing the basket of eggs against your chest.

“ I just want you to know… If I were to cheer on someone… I would cheer on you.” she says and gives you  a great smile and grabs your wrist again, pulling you to hunt some more eggs.

When the whistle  of the end of the competition blew ,  Maru simply  turned her basket on top of yours, leaving you with almost  too many eggs  to carry. You looked at her, surprised, but she just chuckled  and gave  you a friendly tap on your shoulder.

“Y/n wins!” Lewis  says after counting all the eggs. “Just to eggs more than Abigail,  hm !  I hope you enjoy your prize!”

He puts in your head a very large straw hat and you could feel it shading all the sun from your head. Your eyes shine with the realization that it was actually a very good hat for the farm work. But then you felt bad for cheating.

“Here Abigail…” you s ay  handing the hat to her. “ Maru helped me with the eggs. You actually won.”

Abigail takes the hat from your hands and puts it on your head.

“Don’t worry.” she giggles. “It looks better on you than on me, anyway.”

You  smile at her, truly appreciating that you will be able to keep the hat. Then you notice that Sebastian has just  gotten near the two of you.

“Hi…” you whisper.

“Hey.” He replies in the same tone.

Silence comes over you and you look aside , nervously cracking your fingers and shrinking your shoulders in discomfort. 

“I better be going.” You say. “I still have a lot to do in the farm today.”

You turn around before any of them can say  anything and run back to the farm  as fast as you can, holding your new hat on your head. The festival was much fun, but you  knew something in your heart was not feeling right… and  Maru's words.

Compete with Abigail? You would never try something like it , even more so after seeing the intensity of their relationship…

Why were you pondering something like it? Why did it matter after all?

But it seemed to matter. So much.


	14. Chapter 14

The days went by and spring was almost over . You dove so deep into farm work these last days, you were now skipping meals or just eating some green beans between your chores: you were determined to save  money and get your house fixed for  the summer storms.

You weren’t expecting Alex to show up so suddenly , bringing you some lunch and cookies.

“I haven’t been seeing you running around town as always, so I got a bit worried.” He says while you eat, seated in the front porch.

“I have been too  caught up in the farm's schedule and Pierre told me he hasn’t been in need of supplies so… I just hope Gus is not upset with me that I haven’t been taking  some vegetables to him.” You reply, taking a big bite of the nicest lunch you'd had in weeks.

“People have been asking about you, for sure.” He says. “I guess you became kind of… a part of the usual scenery. But Mayor Lewis said that  it would probably be because the end of the season is very hush.”

You nod and take a sip of the  natural juice he had brought.

“Hey…” Alex says when he finishes eating and puts the plate aside. “Sorry about that day… in the egg festival. I should have gone to you, to say hello.”

“It… it’s ok, you were busy.”

“Haley is not my girlfriend.” He says in a hurry. “Just for you to know.”

“O…ok.” You reply while grabbing the dishes .

“Let me wash those for you.” He says while taking them from your hands.

Alex washes the dishes  while you almost finish off Evelyn's delicious cookies.

“I hope you have been eating well, with all this farm work, you need a lot of protein.” Alex opens  your fridge  and turn s to you, impressed. “So many green beans…”

“I have been harvesting too many of  these… Actually… I need to do some chores right now.”

“Can I help you? I am on a break from my training today.”

You offer Alex the scythe for him to  cut some fiber and hay to you, but he says he actually prefers collecting logs for you , so you divide the work like that. By the  sunset, you are stashing up  the fiber when Alex shows up, shirtless, carrying the wood on his shoulder. His skin is shining with sweat . You blush at the sight of it.

“It is getting hotter and hotter.” He says, cleaning up his forehead. “Summer is sure coming. We should hang around in the beach like old times… if you have a break from all this work.”

Alex notices you are trying to avoid looking at him and smirks , putting the logs down and stretching his arms up in a very exhibitionist way. You can’t help but see the muscles on his  abdomen  move a bit.  You can’t remember ever seeing someone with such a defined body from so close.

“ What is with you?” He says while chuckling and coming a bit closer. “You are all red. Too much time in the sun?”

“Don’t come this close !!” you shriek while stepping away, nervously.

“Why not? We used to hang together like this all the time.”  He says, pulling you by your arm .

He puts you on his shoulder while laughing and you suddenly remember so many times that the two of you tried to compete forces by lifting each other on your arms. You remember a time when Alex carried you around a whole day on his back while saying he was the strongest man in the world and the two of you would break the world record of pony back riding. He was supposed to be the pony…

Well, but Alex was three times as big now, and a lot stronger. He took you like you weighed less than a leaf, back to the cottage. You got nervous, but couldn’t help but giggle.

“You already won. There is no way I can carry you around like this.”  You say, tapping his well defined back.

He smiles and slowly leans on to you. You step back surprised, but he follows after and gives you a kiss on the cheek. As you feel his lips softly touch your face, a bittersweet memory comes by.

It is raining heavily and you are running as fast as you can to get back to Paradise farm. Alex is holding your wrist to pull you, as he is a lot faster. The sound of the thunders  makes your heartbeat increase with fear.

As soon as you arrive the farm, you get inside a log where the two of you are used to hiding from the others. Alex doesn’t want anybody to find him, and that means you not being found too.

“I don’t want to go away. Maybe with that rain they will want to stay for some more days.” he says while hugging his legs. “I am sorry I dragged you along. I didn’t want to be alone.”

“It is ok, I like when we hang around here.” you reply.

You look at Alex and he is not the same happy and bright boy he always is. He hasn’t been, the entire summer... something about him had become heavy. He was talking less and less, didn’t want to play most games, saying they were for babies, he was even treating people in a mean way.

Your cousins didn’t like him anymore, they started describing him as a “douche” but you knew that was not the Alex you were friends with. And you had a lot of faith in him, also... you had noticed the bruises in him. Purple wounds that came and went without him saying anything, those didn’t seem to be from falls or  gridball training.

“Did you hear, y/n?” he whispers in a low tone. “Did you hear the adults talking about my mom and my dad?”

You nod.

“My father said we will not come back next summer. He said we are never coming back again.” Alex said while wiping a tear from his face. “So... I think this is the last time we see each other.”

“It can’t be! I will send you some letters.” you reply trying to keep the hope up, but you didn’t even have his city address. “We... we can do something about it.”

He smiles at you and nods, but you can see in his eyes he doesn’t seem to believe in you, and this makes your heart hurt.

“We are going to keep being best summer pals.” he said, and held your hand. “Maybe your parents can bring you to visit me...” he sighs with a frown. “I am sorry... my dad would never take me to visit you.”

“Don’t worry, I will make sure to visit you!”

Both of you knew it was a lie. You just kept holding hands with that childish hope in your hearts, that would soon be broken apart, until the rain stopped.

Just a while before you left the log, Alex gave you a kiss on the cheek. That was how he was, a gentle kid. A carrying and gentle kid.

Getting carried away by the memory, you toss yourself on Alex’s arms, who holds you tight, in a kind hug.

“Please, tell me what happened to you.” you whisper. “Tell me everything.”

You both sit down on the porch while Alex tells you his story. How his father drank and beat him and his mother and then she fell sick for many years, until she died and he decided to move to  stardew valley to live with his grandparents. 

“I was almost going pro at high school, but I couldn’t bare anymore to live with that man.” he said, staring at the horizon. “So I came here and... I am training, but it is hard in a small town.”

He sighs and puts down his head.

“I believe in you, Alex.” You say, putting your hand on top of his. “And I will sure go cheer on you when you play.”

Alex holds your hand and turns to you with a satisfied smile. The two of you spend the rest of the evening chatting about things you used to do together when kids, cherishing every memory and laughing at your deeds. Catching bugs, playing sports, competing in races, swimming, you used to do a lot.

When Alex leaves it is already past midnight.

“ Come visit me some time… and eat well!” He says while waving at you.

You keep  watching him go away with a warm feeling in your heart.


	15. Chapter 15

“Emily, I am not sure about it.” You say,  looking at your image in the mirror.

“No,  no,no . It is your first  flower festival, so you have to be looking good.” She says while adjusting the  sleeves of your new clothes.

She had tailored them without you even knowing and they were fitting do well you were impressed , imagining how she could have gotten your mannequin so right. 

You don’t remember ever being in such nice clothes and they are very comfortable, too.

“Thank you. I don’t know how to repay you for this.”  You say to her, as she starts  making your hair too, so it fits your new look.

“ Don’t bother, y/n. You have been so nice to people around,  I am just giving it back to you, as the universe wants.” She says and puts a flower behind your ear. “Also, I love tailoring.  Almost everyone you see today will be wearing  something I made.”

Haley suddenly comes out of her bedroom,  saying for Emily to hurry up, but stops and takes a good look at you. She is wearing a  beautiful white dress and her hair is tied up to a colorful flower crown. She looks like one of those gorgeous television actresses.

“Well, you do look good  in some decent clothes.” She says looking at you from head to toes.

You can’t tell if you should face that as a compliment or an insult and Emily just  facepalms and shrugs at you. The three of you leave for the forest, then.

Everyone is already there when you arrive. They are all very well dressed up and you feel as if you are in a gala event.

He comes towards you with a beautiful smile, all dressed up in a suit. Alex looks really great in those clothes. He also looks like a television model. You can’t avoid turning to Haley and  imagining such a great pair they seem to make.

“Looking sharp!” he says while taping you in the shoulder. “If I didn’t have a pair already, I would take you out for a dance.”

You blush and hear Haley  gasp in wrath. She simply grabs Alex by his forearm and takes him away, while he looks from over his shoulder and waves at you  with a chuckle.

“ Gonna dance?”

You shriek with surprise and turn around  tripping on your ankles. Sebastian stands before you with a black suit.  His hair is a little less messy than most days… at least what you remember them being, since you haven’t seen him in a while.

“I… I don’t dance.” You say, cleaning your throat to try to  disguise the fright he gave you.

“Me neither but… here we are.” He mutters, shrugging. “Caroline and my mother have this arrangement  where they always guil t trip Abby and I into dancing.”

“You are going to dance with Abigail…” you affirm, and then just to yourself you think. “Of course.”

He  seems to take some time into taking a look at you and this makes you blush.

“ You… you are looking really good.” He says. 

“You… you don’t look bad yourself.” You reply, clumsy.

“Y/n… why have you been avoiding me lately?” he asks quietly, moving towards you with  a worried face.

You step back,  chocked on your words, but when you finally decide what you say, Sam and Abigail  suddenly show up behind Sebastian.

“ Seb , they are calling for the rehearsal!”  Abigail says, grabbing his waist in a very intimate gesture. “Hi y/n. You are looking great!”

You wave at her shyly.

“Wow! You are looking perfect. Are you going to dance?” Sam asks . “I am dancing with Penny, but after the presentation I will take you for a dance!”

“Ugh, why are you so  fired up? ” Sebastian asks rolling his eyes. “This is a nightmare.”

They pull Sebastian to a field where  Alex and Haley are already training their dance. She looks really serious and a bit annoyed at him, apparently because he keeps  making mistakes and laughing. Shane is there too, dancing with Emily… he seems a bit drunk, and you are sure he is because that one blue  Junimo is  dancing in a very weird way on his shoulder. When he sees you, he waves, and so does the  Junimo .

You watch as Abigail and Sebastian come close to each other to rehearse. They actually seem to be making an effort to pretend they are not liking it. It doesn’t work, as you can see how much pleasure they seem to take to be on each other's arms.

They  are a bit  uncoordinated from the others, but that  makes them seem even greater together. Abigail is the only girl with her hair loose, and you see i t waving and shining as they spin. 

Sebastian looks so serious  he seems to be a professional in that, even though he skips some steps.

Maru and Harvey are the couple who seem to be in most difficulty. Harvey  looks really shy and  Maru seems, unsuccessfully,  try to incentive him into opening up.

Leah and Elliot… they dance like professionals, probably because of their art veins. They look like a post curse beauty and the beast couple dancing under the flowers.

When Lewis announces  the  presentation everything seems to come together very well. They all dance as if they had been doing this for years, like a real dance crew.

Alex gets all the steps right and he even touches foreheads with Haley, guiding her perfectly.

Everyone claps. You clap and even get a bit emotional about how beautiful it was.

“Thank you, young folks, for keeping this ancient tradition alive!”  Lewis says, his voice cracking with emotion. “Now let us celebrate.”

Some people go straight to the foods table while the older couples get into the dance field and start spinning around to the music.

You are getting to the table when Sam suddenly gets you like a hurricane and takes you to the field.

“No, no, Sam! I can’t.” You  say in despair.

“Relax! I will guide you!” he replies, bowing to you in an overly exaggerated greet.

He takes your hand in his and then puts your other in his shoulder, then  takes you by the hip. You are sure it is going to be a disaster, but he starts guiding you slowly , letting you understand the beats of the song and his steps. Sam seems to be very good with  rhythm.

“See! You are doing great.” He says and gives you the brightest smile.

You smile back, and let him guide you in that dance… and then the other. And in the next one. Sam doesn’t seem to get tired, but neither do you.

“You are good at this!” he says. “ Maybe I will make you my partner next year.”

“Oh no, I can’t take the pressure of an audience.” You reply.

“Don’t look around then.” He giggles.

You do exactly the opposite, just to notice that you and Sam are now the only couple dancing by now.

Alex stares at you while drinking something, leaning against the fence while Haley tides her hair next to him. He doesn’t look amused. You can only see his eyes once the cup is right in front of his mouth.

On almost the other side, Sebastian  has his hands on his pockets, leaning on a tree. He  is doing the exact same face as Alex.

Also, Penny looks at you, almost hidden in a corner. She seems very insecure.

“ Half of me say ‘step away, they  are going to slay you’” Sam says. “But the other half is just really entertained.”

“What?”

“I mean, look at you, look at them.” He says. “I think they are going to murder me before  they let me in this race.”

“SA- Sam?!” you  ask, afraid of what he is going to say next.

To your surprise, Sam spins you and  leans you back in his arms, in a musical worthy dance move. He locks is eyes on yours  and with his face very close, he whispers:

“But just so you know, I crushed you first. ”

Sam pulls you back and  the two of you stop dancing.

“Sorry, I need to be somewhere else now.” He says and bows at you again. “This was really great, though.”

You nod at him and watch as he walks towards Penny. They talk for a while and they leave together, away from the forest.

You notice how late it is. Almost everyone is gone already , so you start getting ready to go back to the farm.

“Hey, y/n.” you hear Alex calling you from the  edge of the forest, he is holdings hands with Haley, who seems very impatient. “ Nice moves! See you!”

You wave back at him until they disappear  inside the forest. You seem to be the last person left.

“Thought you didn’t dance.”

You turn around quickly, once more, and face Sebastian right in front of you. He is not wearing the jacket of his suit anymore, neither the tie. His shirt's buttons are halfway open and he is smoking a cigarette.

“ I did too… but Sam proved me wrong.” You reply. “What are you still doing here?”

“Unhappy to see me?” he asks while letting go the cigar smoke.

“No… I am just…”

He seems to have come even closer now. You look aside.

“ How have you been?” he asks.

“You know… busy with the farm. Summer is coming, I have to get ready for the new crops. Also… I am working on those bundles the  Junimos asked me for the community center…”

When you notice, Sebastian is so close you can almost feel his heartbeat.  He takes one of your hands in his and takes you by the waist.

“ Wanna dance?” he asks  pulling you towards him.

“What?! To what song?”

He takes his cellphone from his pant pocket and puts on a song similar to those playing during the dance. He puts it back into his pocket.

“Sebastian?” you ask and then start laughing nervously.

“I am serious,  show me those moves Sam taught you.” He replies, his face still blank serious. “No one's watching.”

“Dance to the cellphone? Isn’t this too cliché?” You say, but put your hand on his shoulder.

For the first time in  weeks, Sebastian smiles at you. The two of you start  dancing to  the rhythm of the song coming out of his pocket, spinning around in the field . He twists you,  lets you go, pulls you back. You feel him guiding you with a slow and steady flow ,  you can hear your own heartbeat starting to follow the rhythm of th e music.

“How are you so good at this?” you ask him,  while he is spinning you around yourself.

“I have been forced to do this silly dance for years.” He replies, pulling you back to hi m.

“If you think it is so silly, why are we doing this?” you ask while following his steps.

Sebastian stops and you almost trip and fall to the ground, but he  holds you in his arms. 

“Because if I stop you are going away, and I don’t know when you will  let me see you again.” He says, and slowly  steps away. 

You don’t want to leave his embrace, but you have no choice besides stepping away too. You notice how tired you are , you had been dancing for hours.

He sits down and  lights up a cigar, so you sit next to him on the grass.

“ I am sorry.” You say. “I… saw something. And I didn’t know how to tell you.”

He turns to you, with a curious expression.

“There was a day… I was going to the city, and I saw you and Abigail having an argument.” You say, feeling insecure.

Sebastian turns to you with a surprised expression. He tries to say something but the words don’t quite come out, so he just sighs and takes a drag of his cigarette.

“I am sorry.” you whisper. “I just… It was not my intention to eavesdrop, it just ended up happening.”

He shakes his head  negatively and shakes his hand making the smoke go away.

“ This that you saw… it is something complicated.” he says. “ But I am kind of happy you said it is because of this  you have been avoiding me. I thought… I thought I had really fucked up that day  and that I had lost you.”

“Lost… me…?” You stutter.

Sebastian lets go a breath of relief and lies on the grass, pulling you by the sleeve so you join him. You lie side by side looking at each other. It is dark but you can see his dark eyes shine, there are only crickets to be heard and you are under a starry sky. You don’t remember ever having felt what you were feeling while looking at Sebastian in that moment.

“ I really want you to stick around.” He whispers, and gently  pass his hand on your temper. “I  wanna have you around.”

You keep looking at him while a  slight smile comes to his face.

“I don’t know what it is about you that feels so… different.  I feel like I belong when I am with you. I feel like things are starting to fit.” he says.

You enjoy his gentl e touch.

“ Why don’t you tell me what you have been up to these days?” you say  while turning to the sky, not knowing how to deal with his words.

You can feel him stare at you for a while more before he looks up and starts talking about his daily  routine. Waking up late, working on his computer,  hanging out with Sam and Abigail now and then. You listen with attention until he  takes your hand and puts it in his chest. He keeps talking, but you can only focus on his slow heartbeat then.

“Oh my…” you say when he finishes talking. “Is that the sun?”

“Yeah…  we are lucky nothing attacked us. Did you bring your sword or we would have to run for our lives?” he chuckles. “I wouldn’t be able to run, my feet are killing me… I will be sore from all this dancing when I wake up.”

“ Fuck… my schedule!” you complain, rubbing your eyes.

“It is just a day. ”

“No, seriously, I  gotta feed Dog and  harvest everything left before it is summer!”

You stand up so quickly Sebastian gets a scare from you pulling your hand so harshly.

“How about we sleep a little and then I help you?” he says, standing up and stretching.

“I will only sleep after I get all those parsnips ready.”

The two of you make your way back to the farm . Sebastian holds your hand  midway.

You don’t let go.


	16. Chapter 16

A s soon as you get to the farm , you get quite a surprise.

“I wondered why you weren’t  answering " Caroline says  while adjusting her hat. “Oh, Sebastian?”

He uncomfortably wav es  at her,  exchanging a glance of questioning with you .

Caroline , Jodi, Marnie and Emily  are standing by your door, all of them wearing shading hats and carrying baskets  in their hands.

“Howdy neighbor?!”  Marnie says. “ We are here to help you with the last harvest.”

“ Yo … you  wha … you are?” you say, your voice cracking with emotion.

“Yes! You have been so gentle to everyone  this whole spring,  attending requests from the  board in front of the store, helping with fertilizer from the garden, and sometimes giving us some delicious parsnips … we thought that maybe it is time to  give back some of that generosity by helping you in this busy time.” Caroline  explains while the others agree.

“Y/n is one of a kind!” Emily says with a smile. “ Also, farming is a very good workout.”

Before you can even thank them, they scatter around  and start harvesting the vegetables you had planted. You let a little tear scape from your eye, but quickly clean it up when you notice Sebastian is staring at you.

“You are so great like this, right?” he murmurs with an annoyed tone, and you don’t understand until he completes. “Maybe too good for me…”

While pretending you didn’t listen, you take a basket and toss it on his chest, making him get away from  that thought. You don’t understand why Sebastian  gets down those sudden bad spirals, but you can notice because that sad black  Junimo shows up on his shoulder.

“Whoever gets more vegetables wins!” you say and run to the field to start picking.

“What?! Wait! You didn’t say go!!” he complains, following after.

It is past noon when all of you finish  harvesting, watering plants and cleaning up some more of the farm’s terrain. Sebastian is tossed on your porch breathing heavily,  his shirt is almost all opened. The women are chatting near the entrance of the farm, they are all sweaty but seem really satisfied.

“Thank you so much.” You say with a bow.

“ Not at all!” Caroline replies. “We were happy to help. Bye  bye , Sebastian!”

He only rises his hand and drops it again, exhausted.

When they go away, you sit next to him.

“ Wanna go for lunch?” you ask.

“ I can’t walk… even one step. I am going to die here, that is it.” He  complains while puffing.

You laugh at him.

“Go take a shower, you can wear those clothes I borrowed from you.” You say.

“ Why did you plant so many parsnips?” he slowly sits and rubs his heads.

“I really want the money…  I want to get that house upgrade.” You say while helping him stand up. 

Sebastian turns to your house and makes a sound of agreement, so he gets inside and goes take that shower you offered him. While so, you prepare some coffee for the two of you to hold up the walk to the Saloon for lunch.

When you turn around, you drop one of  your recently bought mugs  and it splatters on the floor. Sebastian is coming out of the bathroom , shirtless, he is still half wet and dries his hair with a towel. H e jumps back , as surprised as you.

You immediately toss yourself to the floor, both to clean up the mess and to avoid looking at him .

Sebastian kneels in front of you  to help you collect the shatters, but you desperately gesture for him to step back.

He is so handsome with his hair wet and towel around his neck. You can’t avoid blushing at each peak you take. A pale young man, dark hair, thin chest…his dark eyes are still a bit stained from the eyeliner he was probably wearing in the festival. And they are staring straight at you. You don’t know what to do.

He was not the little boy you remember anymore.  He is a very handsome man now.

“Are you ok?” he asks, looking concerned.

“I… I am alright.” you stutter. “Go… go put your clothes on, I will clean up this mess.”

“You go take a shower. I will clean it up for you.” he replies.

You nod quickly and grab your clothes as fast as you can, running to the bathroom so you can’t see him anymore. You stay leaned against the door until your heartbeat goes back to normal.


	17. Chapter 17

Your eyes shine with the sight of Robin giving the final adjustments to the house. Finally you have a lot more space and a very nice kitchen! Also, she presented you with a wonderful double bed, so comfortable. You couldn’t believe how fast she had done all that work, but by now “magic from the valley” was a nice excuse for anything.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pay for the bed?” you ask her once again.

“Y/n, don’t worry. You’ve been working hard, you deserve this comfort.” she smiles at you while putting away her tools. “But, if you want to give me one of those melons I saw you growing there, I won’t complain.”

You nod at her happily, the melons are sure growing greatly.

You were so happy! The farm was thriving, you got to make some sprinklers to make your work easier, you had the new house upgrade, had got to clean a lot more space to use around.

And there was that day Willy, the fisherman from town gave you a nice fishing rod so you could fish, something you always loved doing with your grandfather. You had been secretly collecting the things the  Junimos asked for, to fix the community center. It was feeling easier now that you got to meet the valley better and was learning where to find many things.

“So... are you coming over for lunch today?” Robin asks before leaving. “ Sebby seems to really have been appreciating your company lately.”

You blush and nod with a nervous smile. You and Sebastian had been hanging around a lot lately. 

Because the beginning of the season was very busy, he came to visit almost every day by the afternoon and stayed seated on the porch while you worked, and you chatted while so. At the beginning he tried to help you, but he was really not good at planting, neither cleaning up, now that the debris left were really hard to get rid of, so he just gave up when you gently gave him a hint he really didn’t have to.

He usually called you for dinner in his home and you went to his room to play RPGs or videogames together. The two of you had an entire plot settled by now, he had been narrating a game just for you. Sometimes Sam showed up to play too, but he didn’t want to put him on your game, so he just started a new one. 

“ Hmn ... you guys are starting to keep secrets?” Sam mocked while organizing his game cards.

“No.” Sebastian replied, visibly annoyed. “I just... have something planned for this plot with y/n.”

Sam just chuckled in response, sending you a glance of suspiciousness, which you immediately avoided. Actually, Sebastian had asked you not to tell anyone about the game you had been playing together, because he intended to use the plot on a game he was developing for computers.

But...

There was this time you went to the  Stardrop saloon to play pool with them, Sam had invited you. Sebastian firstly seemed really happy to see you arrive, although surprised, but when Abigail greeted you, he immediately changed his behavior. 

It was a very weird situation, because Abigail always treated you very kindly, but you could feel something about her pushing you back.

“Abby, let’s play teams!” Sam insisted.

“No, you guys can take turns, I don’t feel like playing today.” she said, while drinking a beer. “Better, you should let  Seb and y/n play.”

“I... I don’t mind just watching.” you said.

“No, no. Sam plays with him all the time.” Abigail said. “Let’s see if Sebastian gets as mad with you as he gets with me when he loses.”

She giggled as if it was a mockery, and Sam followed after, but Sebastian looked up seeming very uncomfortable. He barely spoke to you that night... and was always after Abigail, asking if she wanted another beer, or anything to eat. He even let Sam play against you to sit with her and you watched them talking, whispering to each other, giggling... things you didn’t know about.

This made you feel uncomfortable, but you really felt like you didn’t have place or right to get sad or mad at him for that. They had they own “thing”, you couldn’t just get in the middle of it.

So, you decided to teach Sam a thing or two about pool.

“Wow, I really didn’t know you could do a curve ball like that.” he happily said.

“You just need to put the cue stick a little to the side. Remember to try to avoid the opponent’s balls, though.” you said while showing him how to do the move.

The two of you got so involved in that, that you just stopped playing against each other and you started showing him tricks you learned from your father. Well, he gambled a lot in pool too. 

“I am going to get great on this, y/n!  Seb won’t see what hit him.” Sam excitedly said.

Sebastian suddenly turned to you, as if he had gotten out of a spell. He saw the exact moment when you helped Sam position the cue stick, by holding one of his hands. You heard him gasp and turned to him. He stood up right when Sam hit the right ball and pot it.

You shrieked and clapped at him and to celebrate, Sam grabbed you by the waist and  sp an you in the air. You had a glance of Sebastian grunting and Abigail looking at him with a serious expression.

“Did you guys see that?!” Sam said while putting you back in the ground. “I’m going to beat your ass next time,  Seb .”

“He... don’t get too excited about it.” Sebastian replied with a smirk. “It was just a ball... anyways, let me play with y/n now.”

You played a match and Sebastian won for just one point.

“See, your teacher can’t match me, you can’t match me too.” Sebastian mocked at Sam.

“You’re too convinced, I’m just tired from the farm work.” you mocked back, hitting him slightly in the head with the cue stick.

He looked at you with a false frown and the two of you chuckled... that was when Abigail stood up.

“I am going home now. Nice to see you, y/n. You should show up more to play. At least I get some attention from these two when they are not too busy in the table.” she giggled.

“Hey, I’ll take you home.” Sebastian quickly said.

“Nah, y/n lives further. Sam will take me, right Sam?” 

“Right?” Sam said, being pulled by his jacket.

You could swear you heard Abigail grunt while going away. She only waved at both of you, and, as she was pulling Sam along, he also barely had time to say goodbye.

“Thanks for the lessons y/n!! You rule!” you heard him scream.

Sebastian and you stared at each other as if it was the first time you met that night.

“So... how about we play another one?” he asked, giving you a sweet smile.

“I’m  gonna kick your ass.” you replied, and you both giggled.

While you were walking back to the farm, you started chatting about your days. You told Sebastian about the curious meteor that showed up at your farm.

“I was sleeping and BOOM! I ran outside, there was this huge block of pink rock in the middle of my terrain. I don’t even know what to do with it. My pickaxe almost broke when I tried to break it.” 

“A fucking meteor?!” he chuckled. “I want to see that.”

“Sure, it glows at night. I just hope it is not radioactive.”

“Maybe I don’t want to see that.” he said again, jokingly. “Hey, let’s hope you don’t grow some horns, or your skin gets green.”

“I, personally, think I would look really good with green skin.” you mocked back.

“You look great in anything.” Sebastian said while taking a drag of his cigarette.

You shrunk your shoulders and looked at him, your cheeks blushed. He smiled and passed his arm over your shoulder.

“ Aah , what are you doing?” you said when he pulled you closer while you were walking, almost making you trip.

“Why were you teaching Sam to play pool?! Are you trying to ruin my fun?! I like beating him every Friday.” he said, not letting you go, even though you squirmed to try to avoid him.

“Because he sucks, poor him. At least he will be a little bit of a challenge now.” you said while trying to set your pace along with hi s .

You realized Sebastian was a little drunk, as his cheeks were a bit blushed and he was staggering a little. That time he spent talking to Abigail, he was probably drinking.

You though again about the scene. Abigail and him chatting very close to each other, his arms on the back of the couch, surrounding her a little, her feet up the sofa... no, her legs were on his lap. Were they chatting all that time? You looked at him from the corner of your eyes and he looked very happy and soft...

Your head started to fill with thoughts about them. He liked her, didn’t he? You had come to this conclusion since the first time you saw them together. Why didn’t she want to date him? She seemed to like him too... So... Sebastian wanted to date. Abigail didn’t. So that meant, no matter what, he liked her...

You stopped and made Sebastian detangle from your shoulder.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked when he realized your face had become serious and your head was a bit down.

Why?

Why did that bother you?

“ Seb , I need to wake up early tomorrow.” You said, giving him a gentle smile. “Let’s hurry a little.”

He raised his eyebrows and nodded, so you walked a bit faster, in silence the rest of the path.

“Bye , then... You’re coming tomorrow for our session of Solarian?” he asked.

“Sure.” you replied and waved at him.

But did you feel like going? That was your special moment with him, right? 

Of course... because you were friends...

You sat on your bed and felt a sob coming up your throat. 

That is it, you and Sebastian were good friends.

You felt the tears pour down your cheek.


	18. Chapter 18

You toss the green beans in the potluck and go back to the feast table, that is looking really good. You had been working on the farm since very soon in the morning, so you could attend de Luau, and didn’t have breakfast, so you are feeling very hungry and everything around is smelling very nice.

Everyone seems very excited and the weather is hot. You are wearing the freshest clothes you own, but still are feeling that intense heat. There is loud music to which some people are dancing (you wonder how they can handle it in this heat). The kids are playing in the ocean and you are pretty sure you saw Haley and Alex in the water too.

“Y/n! Glad you could make it!” you hear Sam’s voice come from behind you and quickly turn to him.

He is wearing a pair of shorts with navy patterns, an open shirt and slippers, and there is a thin slice of sunscreen on his nose. You blush as it looks really cute. Penny is with him, wearing a simple yellow dress that looks really pretty on her.

“Hi!” you say and Penny waves at you, smiling. “I am going to eat some lunch. Care join me?”

“Gus’ meals are very good, aren’t they?” Penny says, while grabbing a dish for herself. “I love this festival. And we get the visit from the Governor. Doesn’t it gives our little town a feeling of importance?”

You nod, smiling back at her.

“ Hunf ... Why care for some random old guy.” Sam says, shrugging.

“Come on, Sam. It is good to get the governor on our good side, don’t you think y/n?” she asks turning to you.

You look from one to another as they really seem to disagree about that, so you shrug, not wanting to make any of them uncomfortable. Penny notices it and gives you the nicest smile, at which sight you blush. She is so pretty...

“Some of these vegetables are from your farm, aren’t they?” she says. “Congrats, they look AND taste good.”

“Ha... thanks!” you say, while scratching the back of your neck.

“You have become such a good part of the community; I think someday I’ll call you to give a lecture about farm life to the kids. What do you think about that?”

“Vincent would love it.” Sam giggles, but he suddenly stops when he turns to you and sees you a bit lost in Penny’s gentle expression. “Or... not so much...”

Penny keeps complimenting you on your hard work at the farm as you blush even more and Sam starts staring with a suspicious face.

“Ok, Penny, how about we go check on Vincent and Jas?” Sam quickly says.

“Oh, right, right.” she says. “I hope we see each other later y/n.”

Sam practically drags Penny with him to the deck.

“What’s with you and everyone getting a crush on you?” you listen to him quickly whisper to you before they leave, and you stare at him startled.

You get back to serving your dish when you feel a hand over your shoulder. You turn around to see who it is, and get surprised by Alex giving you a hug.

“Hey! Finally, I get to see you again!” he s ays w hile putting you back on the ground.

He is wearing a tank top and  some  shorts, reveling a lot of his well defined  and tanned  body. You blush at the sight of him.

“I know you have been busy with the farm, but come visit me sometimes. We always liked spending summer together.”

You smile at him with the memory of  the many summers the two of you had spent playing on that beach. You look at the dock  and Alex follows your  eyes.

“How about we lunch together?” he asks and you nod.

Sometime after, the two of you are seated there , eating the food and babbling about summer days of the past, laughing about your deeds.

“Remember when we bet on who could swim further from the shore?” he asks. “We thought we were being so brave, but I don’t think we got past that rock.”

“ Hehehe . Silly kids we were…. I still won though.” You mock,  hitting Alex slightly with your elbow.

“Ok. How about a rematch?” he asks a bit annoyed, but still smiling.

“ Not today, don’t you know it is dangerous swimming after eating?” you reply, but you are not very eager to bet anything physical against the  sporty Alex.

The two of you laugh and Alex grabs your plate to take it back to the foods table. You look over your shoulder to follow his path but your eyes meet up with Sebastian's dark orbs and your smile suddenly vanishes.

He is standing alone, leaning against a pillar  that was put in the sand for decoration. He doesn’t look away, but also doesn’t wave back at you when you do so.  How long has he been there?

He slowly takes a drag of the  cigarette he has between his fingers, lights it off on his shoes and turns around , walking towards Abigail, who  is seated on the east side of the docks. You watch as he sits next to her and she leans her head  on his shoulder.  They seem to exchange a couple of  words and she lifts her head t o him with a soft smile.

And he kisses her lips.

You feel as if your heart has just shattered inside your chest...you have the urge of standing up and running away from there, but your body doesn’t respond. You can’t even stop staring, although you are  afraid they will notice you doing so.

Alex suddenly sits  between you and the sight of them, taking you out of your despair.  He just quietly puts his arm around your shoulder and points to the sky.

“Look, balloons.” He  says.

You turn to where his finger is pointing and you get the sight of many colorful air balloons coming up the sky . You feel a tear pour down your cheek but this view  soothes your heart and you quickly wipe the tear so Alex doesn’t notice it. 

“That cloud looks like a tomato.” You say, pointing at a cloud near one of the  balloons .

“That one looks like a  gridball ball.” Alex mocks and the two of you laugh.

It was something you used to do as kids in summer, sit on the docks and give shapes to the clouds.  So you start doing it and you slowly start feeling better. 

When you look at the other side of the docks, Abigail and Sebastian are not there anymore.

You spend the rest of the day with Alex, until the sun s ets and  almost ever y one has gone away. 

“Alex, you said you were going to take me home.” a voice comes from behind you.

The two of you look back to see Haley standing with her hands on the hips.  She is wearing a loose skirt and the top of a bikini, looking just like a magazine cover model.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah.” Alex quickly says, standing up  and passing his arm around her hip. “Sorry y/n. I… I  gotta go now but… hey, come around  to visit, ok? Let's come for a swim sometime.”

You nod at him and watch as they go away. Haley  barely waves at you.

You find yourself alone in the dock , watching the sky slowly turn dark, but you don’t stand up to go home. There is still some smell of nice food in the air bu t your mouth tastes bitter.

“ Are you going to sleep here tonight?” 

Your heart skips a beat, but you can’t say you are surprised.  He always shows u p like this.

Sebastian sits next to you while lighting up a cigarette. He is wearing a t shirt but, as always, pants and boots .

“What are you still doing here?” you ask.

“Unhappy to see me?” he replies, letting go the smoke.

“Should I be? I mean, you didn’t even wave back at me… did I do something wrong? Or you can just ignore me whenever you want?” your words come out sharper than you intend to, but you just can’t help it.

Sebastian turns to you looking  uncomfortable, but also guilty.

“S-Sorry…” he stutters, scratching the back of his neck. “I  thought you were busy.”

You look at him from the corner of your eye, and notice he really seems to  be regretful.

“I was.” You say, shrugging. “ But you could have waved back."

He falls in silence, looking at  his boots slowly move the water . As you also don’t know what to say, you also get lost in the  ocean's reflexes of the sky.

“Sorry.” he says again, after a while.

“Ok...” you reply, shrugging.

“I fucked up.” He insists, and you see him shrink his legs up the dock against his  chest.

“I said it's ok, Seb.” you say, turning to him and noticing how worried he seems.

The little black  Junimo is there, crying on top of his shoulder.

“A…are you ok?” you ask, leaning to him, but you don’t find the courage to  touch his shoulder.

Sebastian shakes his head and hide s his face on his knees, and you are sure you can hear a sob , you just don’t know if it comes from the  Junimo or from him.

“ Seb ?” you insist.

“Sorry.” He says again and suddenly stand up in a hurry. “I have to go.”

You barely have time to say somethin g before Sebastian leaves in a hurry. You reach towards his back as you see the small  Junimo fading  in a grief posture, but you can’t call him back.

You find yourself alone in the beach, just the  sound of water to be heard.


	19. Chapter 19

The Melons filled  the  shipping box almost to the top. You feel tired of picking so many crops, but you are also proud of  how much the farm has grown. 

You have separated some of the melons to give away to people in town… some of these are those you promised to Robin but…

How could you go to the mountains without avoiding an awkward  meeting with Sebastian? 

Since that day in the Luau he had been weirdly avoiding you. Always saying he was busy in the days you used to  playing RPG. He completely stopped visiting also. You had crossed paths one day in the city and he just said a quick hello and practically ran away from you. He didn’t seem to be mad at you, but it was clear he didn’t want to be around.

You shake your head to avoid these thoughts as they really hurt you.

“ Wow those are some good looking melons!” his voice  brings warmth to your heart. “I don’t even like those much, but these look so good I might  eat them all today. ”

Alex takes the bag from your hands giving you a big smile.

“How about I open some and we go have a pic nic on the beach?” he asks while putting some of the melons in the fridge as you eat some of Evelyn's recently baked cookies. “I bet I can crack one of these with my bare hands.”

“Oh, I really doubt that.” You mock at him, and he turns to you with a defiant smirk.

A while later you are watching Alex cracking a melon open while the both of you sit in a towel beside the sea.

“We should have bet something.” He proudly says while cleaning his hands on a napkin. “I would have gladly won.”

“I am glad we didn’t. I don’t have much to bet, anyway.” You reply, taking the melon  and cutting it in smaller parts so you can eat it together.

You had been seeing Alex a lot lately. His birthday was right after the luau and he had showed up to invite you to his party. It was very simple: a cake with his grandparents, Haley and Emily.

You spent most of the time chatting with Emily as Alex and Haley seemed really involved in a conversation about fashion  trends from the city and a movie they had seen in common. You hadn’t seen many movies lately…

But… Haley was actually very gentle to you that day, she even described the whole plot to you , a romance about a girl that wrote letters to a man in the army. She even called you to watch it with her sometime… maybe.

“Haley is nice once you get to know her.” Alex said  when they were gone and you stayed to help washing the dishes. “People think she's just a spoiled girl but, she is really smart, you know? They judge her because of … well she is not nice at first but…  people have their reasons… everyone is di…”

You put a hand on Alex shoulder as you could feel the annoyance in his speech.

“You are a very nice guy, Alex. No matter what people say, I know you for real.” You said.

Alex stopped washing the dishes and slowly turned to you , he was smiling, but you could see a heavy feeling behind that expression.

“You know… I am happy to have you here.” He whispered. “ I think you are the person that knows me the most in this whole world.”

After saying that, he gently hugged you  and you hugged him back. For a long while  you stayed like that until he stepped back and got back to washing the dishes.

Since then you felt like visiting him some days and you always ended up in the beach, admiring the summer sky . Sometimes he  tossed the  gridball at you, but you were not so good at that. 

He didn’t seem to care, though.

“We should go for a swim today.” Alex says, while cleaning his mouth from the melon's juice.

“Nah, I don’t have a swimsuit.” You reply.

“Get in in your underwear, who's gonna know?” he replies.

“I am not doing this!” you reply, your cheeks blushing  with the thought of it.

Alex stands up and look around, suspiciously, then, starts undressing his clothes.

“ALEX!!” you yell,  putting both hands in front of your eyes.

“Come on, its not like you haven’t seen a guy in boxers before.” He says, tossing his shorts on our head, making your shriek and  toss them away as quickly as you can.

This makes you turn to him, standing in front of you  only in his black boxers, his tanned body  shining in the sun. He is extending his hand to you.

“In the  water no one is  gonna know it's not a swimsuit… or are you wearing nothing underneath?” he asks, with a smirk.

You grab some sand and toss at him  while he giggles. You stand up and look around, quickly taking off your  clothes. 

“Look away!” you say when you notice Alex is paying attention.

“Why? We're friends. Also, you look just the same.”

You gasp in an offended expression and push him by the arm, but the just giggles and look aside while you finish undressing.

“The first one to get to the water wins!”  you say and quickly run towards the shore.

“You cheater!” Alex says, running after you.

You try as hard as you can but Alex quickly  surpasses you and  goes all the way into the sea, until the water gets to his knees and you are still halfway and already puffing. When you get to him  he is yawing in a very sassy way.

“I… want a… rematch…” you say among puffs.

“Nah, you lost. Therefore…”

The image of Alex slowly coming close to you with his hands extended brings you a both very happy and uncomfortable memory, so you quickly try to runaway.

“TICKLE ATTACK!!” he yells as he advances onto you .

You squirm with laughter trying to avoid him as much as you can , but he is much stronger and holds you while tickling your ribs. He then pulls you up and tosses you in the deeper water.

You swim back up just to see him tossing water at you. You strike back and the two of you start playing as two kids in the water until you get tired and ask for a time out.

He swims closer.

“I missed this.” He says, taking one of your hand s under the water. You can feel the waves of his swimming coming towards you.

“Me too.” You reply with a smile.

You stare at each other for a moment while silence falls between you. Alex's green eyes are locked into yours and make something in your cheeks heat and redden.  You can feel him coming closer, you feel like going closer too.

But…

You slowly take your hand from his grip and swim away from him. Alex looks a bit disappointed, but  doesn’t insist.

“It's getting late. I need to feed dog.” You say.

“Right, I have to work out.” Alex replies.

You both go back to the shore and Alex gives you his shirt for you to dry yourself in. You feel a silly happiness from this gentle gesture.

“I…” Alex says , looking very serious . “I will try again.”

You look at him as if you don’t understand what he is saying, but deep inside, you do.

“See you later!” his expression  quickly turns into a big smile.

He kisses you in the cheek and walks away, taking his wet shirt on  his shoulder and the things from the  picnic on his hands.

You dress up and sit on the sand. Some tears come up your eyes a s you look at the sky and notice some clouds are accumulating and turning gray. 

Sebastian takes over your mind.


	20. Chapter 20

You stare at the little chicks while Dog sniffs around your new coop.

“I… I hope I am doing the right thing.” You say, a little worried.

“Buh. Just follow the notes I gave you and you will be fine.” Shane says while petting one of the little brown chicks. “Make sure to let them walk around, they get happy to go outside.”

He stands up and tides his  Joja mart cap.

“Thanks for helping me with this, Shane! This is the first time I take care of animals… besides Dog, but he is pretty independent.” you say.

“Buh… chickens are independent too. Don’t worry.” He replies with a shrug. “And it is not like I have much else to do anyway…”

He catches you looking at him with worry.

“I mean… happy to help. You are nice.” He says, scratching the back of his head.

There is something wrong with him…  you can see that little blue  Junimo on his shoulder and it seems really  pale, as if it is sick or something. He looks a bit off, more than usual.

“Do you want to have some breakfast with me?” you ask when he stands up to go.

He seems to ponder, but  then grunts and shakes his head.

“Don’t let me bother you. You have to work and so do I.” he says.

“Ok… be careful, it will rain today.” 

“Yeah…” he replies with a shrug. “ Lets hope it doesn’t just… wash me away or something… or not.”

Shane goes away with his hands on the jacket pockets, barely saying goodbye to you. After a while you notice he forgot the melon you had packaged for him.

You quickly get to work, as you hope finishing everything before it starts raining , but the thought of the  Junimo on Shane's shoulder keeps bothering you.

There is something about him. Something about the way he walks, the way he talks, how his shoulders slightly fall and his head seems to be down that reminds you of…yourself in the city.

You get inside your cottage just as rain starts dripping and you look at the melons packaged in the corner. One is for Shane and his family. The other is the one you saved up for Robin.

How long had it been since you last  seen Sebastian?

Sebastian quickly gets off of your mind. You are too concerned about Shane. That way he was talking, you know that tone. Wasn’t it exactly how you were when...

You grab the  package of melon, put on your hat and quickly  leave .

“Hi,  Mernie .”  You say as you get inside the store, soaked.

“Howdy. Oh my, you're all wet.” She kindly replies. “Let me grab you some towels.”

“No need.” you say. “Is Shane here?”

“No, no… sometimes he goes  straight to the saloon from work.” She replies.

You sigh and put the melon on the balcony.

“Here. It's for you.”

“Oh my!  Jas will be so happy, I will use it to make a pink cake for her.”  Mernie says, taking the melon to  the kitchen. “I…I would invite you to stay and wait for Shane to comeback but…”

Mernie lets go a long sigh and looks down.

“ He hasn’t been in great condition when he comes back, you know.” 

You stare at her as these words bring even more worry to your heart.

“Has he been sleeping a lot? Skipping meals or eating too much at night… neglecting  hygiene ?” you ask in a breath.

“It… it's just Shane.” Mernie shrugs. “He's just like that.”

“No one is just like that.” You say, shaking your head and storming out of the  store. 

You barely can hear  Mernie calling you back, as you run through the heavy rain towards the city, to the saloon. You feel your chest contract your heart in worry.

You bump the door open and look around, not even caring about all the concerned faces that turn to you. Robin and Demetrius stop dancing when they see you running towards the backroom, Elliott and Leah exchange a curious glance. You hear Willy saying a “gee" and Clint rolls his eyes as if it is  unimportant . Harvey leans back and watches you run around the saloon, so does Gus.

Sebastian and Abigail come from the gaming room to check on what is happening. Alex comes in, worried as he saw you running inside like that.

“Y/n, can I help you?” Emily asks coming towards you.

“Shane! Where is Shane?!” you desperately ask, holding her forearms.

“He bought some beer and left… a couple of hours ago.”

You turn around and see the blue  Junimo lying on the floor where Shane usually sits alone while drinking. It's passed out , barely moving. You run to pick it up and everyone looks at you confused, except for Sebastian and Emily , who look at it concerned

The  Junimo is pale, almost white, as if it is  struggling to stay alive.

“Y/n. Are you ok?”  Alex asks putting his coat over your shoulders. “Why were you running in the rain like this?”

Sebastian comes closer , looking at your hands joined to hold the  Junimo , in an effort to see it too.

“Are you having one of those magical moments?” he asks.

“ I need to find Shane.” You whisper, more to yourself than to any of them.

“Shane?” Sebastian asks, surprised.

“That  useless  drunk dude?” Alex says with annoyance. “Why do you need to find him?”

You don’t bother replying, you just run out of the  saloon the same way you got in, dropping Alex's jacket in the way.

You hold the little  Junimo against your chest, trying to keep it warm.  Memories start coming to you.

You were so tired of everything . You got home and your father  was, once again, passed out in the couch, the TV on. Your boss had yelled at you,  you had to  work overtime to fix some formularies. Your  wrists were aching so much  the usual painkillers were not working. So tired… nothing even made sense anymore. 

Work, eat, sleep, work some more. You could barely play videogames as a distraction, your wrists ache too much.

You took another painkiller, because you wanted to have one good night of sleep without the pain. One more wouldn’t  be a problem.

The pain didn’t go away, so another painkiller came trough.  It was not the wrist pain you were trying to escape from anymore.

“Y/n!!! Y/n!!!” dad screamed but he seemed so far away…

“SHANE!” you yell as you see him lying on the edge of a cliff in the forest.

You run towards him and knell beside him, tears pour down your cheek.

“Y/n…” he grunts  without opening his eyes.

“Shane, come on, let's take you…” you say, trying to reach for him.

“ Everything sucks, you know?” he says before you can do anything. “I am ridiculous… just this little pebble waiting to be crushed by this world.”

You sob, but stay put while he talks.

“I was never something to begin with, you know… just this… boy  without hopes for the future. I was bound to become this nothing I am today.”

He turns a little to the opposite side of you, and tries to hold a hiccup.

“ I am tired of doing nothing, of being nobody.”

“Shane…” you say, holding one of his hands. It is cold.

“Why shouldn’t I just… roll off this cliff. Put an end to this shitty life. To my shitty existence…”

You bring his hand close to your face and hold it  as strong as you can with both of yours.

“It… it's your decision but… I can’t promise I won’t hold you  on your way down. I can’t promise I won’t try to hold you.” you reply.

“Y/n…” he opens his eyes and  very slowly, turn to you. “Why are you crying?”

“Why aren’t you?” you reply with a sob.

Shane lets go a chuckle.

“My misery is more like a joke then a drama to me…” he says. “I am  this ridiculous joke in the world… don’t cry, I am not serious about jumping from here… I don’t have the guts to…”

“It takes a lot of bravery to stay  alive, too , you know?” you sob again. “Cause it is so hard when the world feels so heavy around us.”

He looks at you with a soft expression.

“ Where did you come from,  buh ?  Why do you care about someone… like…”

“Everyone deserves to be cared about, Shane.” You quickly interrupt him.

He smiles at you.

“Is it, really? Even a shitty person like me?" he says  with what you don’t know if is a hiccup or a sob.

“Even some shitty people like us.” You reply.

“I don’t think you are shitty.” He whispers.

“Neither I think you are.” You reply.

“Hmm… y/n…” he mumbles. “I think you should take me to the hospital now…”

You gasp as he seems to pass out completely and quickly try to  pick him up, but Alex and Sebastian come from behind you and stand Shane up, each on one shoulder. They had followed you all the way to the forest.

They both take a while looking at you, each on their own way. Alex looks confused,  ashamed. Sebastian looks sad and guilty. But both seem to admire you with their eyes.

You follow them as they take Shane to the hospital.  Harvey greets you with a gasp and quickly take Shane to the back, asking Sebastian to call  Maru as quick as he can.

Sebastian leaves in his motorcycle and comes back with her after a while. 

You, Sebastian and Alex wait in the waiting room, each one in a different corner of the  the room. You, practically unaware of their presence, just staring at the Junimo on your hands, which slowly starts to regain its blue color.

Harvey appears and you stand up.

“He will be ok, we cleaned his stomach, gave him some medicine.” He says ,then pulls you aside. “ I am most concerned with his mental health. How did you know something had happened?”

“Happened to me too…” you whisper, but Sebastian and Alex do seem to eavesdrop , as they suddenly turn to you. “What now, doctor?”

“ I have a colleague in the city, I will recommend for him to attend some  sessions. Maybe a psychiatrist too.” He says. “ You saved a life today, y/n.”

You shake your head.

“I am just glad he is ok… but he is not saved yet.” You look at the sad blue Junimo in your hand. “Please, have him attend those sessions.”

As Harvey goes to the back, Alex approaches you.

“That thing I said… I didn’t mean to…”

“I know Shane might remind you of your father, but you, of all people, shouldn’t judge anyone at first sight.” You say in an angry tone. “I need some time before we talk.”

Alex gasps and then sighs , stepping back and nodding.

“Fair enough.” He says , seeming very disappointed.

As he leaves, you put the blue  Junimo on the balcony.

“Am I  gonna get one of these, too?” Sebastian asks, approaching you while watching Alex goes away.

You simply turn to him  and stare in silence.

“Ok… cold shoulder for me, I guess.” He says, shrugging.

“How dare you?!” you say , feeling a sudden urge to vent. “ How long has it been since YOU last spoke to me?!”

Sebastian gulps and puts his head down with a sigh.

“ Sorry.”

“Don’t “sorry” me.  “C an you at least explain  to me what happened?”

He shakes his head.

“So don’t talk to me! Not if you are going to try to act as if nothing happened!” 

“I…”

You stare deep in his eyes and wait. He tries to  stare back, but quickly looks aside. As he does so, you turn to leave, but he  grasps your arm.

“Wait, please!” he says.

“I can’t read minds, Sebastian! Either you speak up or you leave me be.” You sharply say.

He keeps holding you, his mouth open  in what seems to be desperation.

“I am…. I…” he stutters. “I am dating Abigail.”

You feel yourself go dizzy for a moment and Sebastian tries to hold you, but you step back and fall seated.

“Y/n.” He calls you, but you try to avoid the sound of his voice.

“This is… none of my business.” You say, putting yourself together. 

“I am sorry.” He says. “She said she wanted to be my girlfriend on the luau, I… I didn’t know how to react… I mean. I wanted this for so long, but...”

“Stop talking.”  Your voice pitch betrays you. “I have nothing to do with that. ”

“I feel… I am so confused. I am sorry I have been avoiding you but…”

“Shut up Sebastian!” you sob.

“You make me feel… so confused.”

“Excuse me, this is a hospital, can you keep it down?”  Maru's voice interrupts you in an angry whisper, but she really seems to direct that anger towards Sebastian .

This is enough for you to rush away from there.

As soon as you get home you drop on the floor to cry, Dog runs  to your aid.


	21. Chapter 21

You are  planting new seeds when Shane shows up with some breakfast.

“Oh man… I really don’t know what to say…” he mumbles. “Sorry… and… thanks, I guess.”

“Don’t worry.” You reply as you eat seated on the porch. “I am just happy you’re still here.”

He locks his jaws together and twists his lips in an embarrassed face.

“Buh, was it that serious? I don’t remember anything, really.” He grunts. “Glad you were there, though.”

He starts tossing some pieces of bread to your chicks.

“I will seek treatment in the city, Harvey indicated a colleague of his.” He  says, seeming a bit ashamed.

“I am very glad! And proud of you.” You reply with a smile. 

Shane blushes and then chuckles.

“You’re great.” He says. “Maybe if I look up to  being more like you, I can get better… be better…”

He sighs and looks at the sky.

“I don’t know what you saw in me…” he says.  “But thanks for being my friend.”

“Myself.” You reply with a shrug. “I saw myself in you.”

Shane laughs.

“So maybe I CAN become you.” 

“You can come farm sometimes! I always can use some help.”

“Yeah, let's not  go so fast… maybe help with the chickens.”

“It will be welcomed.”

The two of you giggle and you finish eating the breakfast he brought.

“Those two guys like you a lot,  ain't it?” he suddenly says.

“Wha… no! We are childhood friends. At least…” you sigh as it has been a couple of days since you last spoke to any of them. “We were…”

“I am not good with people, but… If I could give you some advice is that: the heart wants what it wants.”  Shane chuckles. “There is no way we can trick ourselves, right?”

You sigh and nod at him.

“But my heart may have made the wrong choice.” You reply.

“Who knows, right? Life is shitty but sometimes it gives you some good surprises.” He stares at you  tenderly. “Anyway, I should be going now, I promised Jas I would take her to the beach today.”

You simile at him as he goes.

For a moment, nothing else matters besides the good feeling that comes from Shane.

You see the blue  Junimo on his shoulder, happily waving at you.

…

“What are you doing without a jacket?!”  Haley’s voice suddenly scares you. “It's getting cold, are you crazy?! If you get a cold, how are you going to work?”

You shrink yourself on the sofa as she seems really angry.

“She is right.” Emily says  with a nod. “Self care is really important.”

“I… I don’t have many clothes. I’d rather use my jacket when its colder so I don’t wear it of…” you shyly reply.

“MADNESS!” Haley  shrieks and stomps into her bedroom.

She comes back with many oversized warm clothes and tosses them onto you.

“Haley!” Emily says , but giggles.

“You put these on, rig now! They are stylish and warm!” Haley  orders you, practically stepping onto you and  obliging you to dress up.

“Is that dad's coat Haley?!” Emily suddenly looks worried.

“Ugh, is not like he will be needing  it, he can buy whatever in wherever they are.” She seems really annoyed. “ It is resistant AND versatile, y/n can use it while farming.”

You blush as you feel the warmth of the coat on your skin. Since that day in Alex's birthday, Haley started being a lot gentler to you… in her own way.

“Now, let's go!” she says grabbing your arm and cuddling up to you as you always saw her doing to Alex. “I want to take pictures of those jellies"

The three of you leave for the beach, but meet Alex midway.  He hugs Haley to greet her, then looks at you, seeming  unsure. You put your head down and get inside his grip and he hugs you with relief.

“So, summer is over… man, It feels like it just started.” He says while involving both you and Haley over your shoulders. “I don’t like cold seasons, they are not so good to practice sports.”

The three of you get to the dock where most people are already gathered, looking at the water.

You see Sam, Sebastian and Abigail on the eastern dock. They are all wearing  warmer clothes and Sebastian is holding Abigail by the waist. 

Sam waves at you and Abigail follows, so you wave back. Sebastian just turns his eyes from you, looking  sad and bothered.

“Hurry up Alex, we need to pick a nice place to see them.” Haley says, pulling him strongly to the edge of the western dock.

“They come every year  Haleey …  aaag ..” he complains but follows after her.

You feel like you will be left behind, as Emily has stepped back to talk to Clint, but Haley comes back and pulls you too, grunting as if bothered you didn’t follow after.

You kneel with them and suddenly you see a few small lights moving around the dock. They are beautiful, just like stars.

“When the mayor throws the boat, more will come and it will be so beautiful… very, very romantic.” Haley says, turning to Alex and smiling.

He blushes and scratches his head. You can’t avoid looking at Sebastian and Abigail chatting with Sam on the opposite dock.

Alex touches your arm, calling your attention.

“Hey, let's sit there .” He says. “There aren’t many people around and it gives a nice view, what do you think?”

You nod at him and turn around to look for Haley.

“She is there taking pictures.” Alex shows.

Haley is away behind, entertained with her camera.

The two of you sit side by side on the edge of the dock .

“Its… chilly, right?” Alex says while looking at the water.

“Yeah, you can feel the fall coming.” You nod.

The  chatter in the docks starts to fade away as you see a little lightened boat float away in the sea.  Willy turns off the all the lights in the pier and the water starts slowly to glow, as if  projecting the wide sky above. You see the jellies float closer, enlightening everything around,  the water waves with their movements, expanding their light  through all the beach.

“So… so beautiful.” You whisper in awe.

“It is…”Alex whispers back at you.

He leans his head on your shoulder and you lean back on him, the two of you holding  hands at the same moment.

You slightly turn to him,  his face glowing in reflex to the lights of the jellies. He moves his face closer and you don’t  retreat, so he slowly rests his lips on yours. You don’t move, but you can’t  kiss him back.

You just can’t.

A tear pour down your face as Alex moves  back and gives you a gentle smile.

“I understand.” He quietly says.

“I am sorry.” You sob at him.

“It is ok. ” He puts his head down. “It was worth the shot.”

You shrink yourself and Alex hugs you tight as you sob. You hear a sudden commotion and the two of you turn to it.

Sebastian is  going away as Abigail calls him from the dock. Sam  face palms , shaking his head. 

“You're all a mess.”  You hear Sam say as he goes after Sebastian.

Abigail looks at you and puts her head down, standing up to go away while hugging herself, apparently about to cry. This makes you feel awful.

Alex stops hugging you and  rest his head on his hand.

“Why him?” he asks you.

You shrug and shake your head. He sighs and stands up.

“I need some time, sorry.” He says and you nod back at him.

As he goes away, you cover your face, trying not to start crying.

“Hey. ”

You look up and Shane is standing beside you, offering you a can of Joja cola. When you take it, he sits next to you.

“ Wanna talk about it?” he asks.

You shake your head with a sob.

“Shitty things, right?” he asks, lifting his can towards you.

“Shitty things.” you say and hit your can on his .

The two of you drink in silence looking at the water, but Shane’s presence makes you feel a bit better.


	22. Chapter 22

Busy.

That is how you made yourself through the  fall, cultivating lots of corn and pumpkins, taking care of the chickens  and the new little cow you got with  Mernie .

Shane came sometimes to bring treats to the chickens and he was very surprised to see the little black and red one that came from the strange egg you  found one morning.

“It's… odd.” He said while petting it.

“I am not even surprised anymore.” you replied while tilling some soil to plant more yams. “Everything about this valley is weird.”

“Hey, don’t you think you are overwhelming yourself with  these many crops?” he asked.

“I need the money because apparently I need a goat  AND a pig, because those GREDDY  junimos want a fucking  tuffle oil.”

Shane looked at you as if you were crazy for a moment, but as you  got stuck in place not knowing how to proceed, he just shrugged.

He was always really nice when  you vented about  the mysteries from the valley or even about Alex and Sebastian, who had both disappeared from your life .

“I would visit them" you said while chopping a tree that you hadn’t seen growing behind the barn. “But Alex said he needed time so… It is up to him  when we get back to talking… IF… ha…”

Shane nodded while  petting the void chicken.

“And… what would I even say to Sebastian?!  Hello, you broke my heart. I don’t understand you at all. But damn it, I care about you!”

“Why not?” Shane said. “Seems nice to me.”

“I doubt he would open the door.” You  sighed to yourself.

You don’t want to think about this anymore, also, you don’t want it to be the only think you talk about, but these feelings are taking over you.

“Did you have lunch today?” Shane asks you, as always.

“I forgot…  did you go to therapy this week?” you reply as always.

“I got lazy…” he grunts.

The two of you stare at each other, accusingly.

“What, I  skept one week! How long have you been skipping lunch?”

“It is not like I do it on purpose. I can have lunch anytime, you have a schedule to follow!!!”

You felt nice that you could hold each other accountable. He went to therapy the next week and you didn’t forget lunch .

…

You  take the prize in your hands, surprised .

“You are the winner of the fair y/n! We are very proud of how Paradise farm has become great again in your hands.” Lewis says.

“Congrats.” Pierre says without much  excitement. “I can’t believe I lost.”

“But… but Mernie has a giant cheese wheel.” You stutter.

“It is ok, dear. The vegetables from your farm are the greatest in the region.” Mernie says with a smile.

“And you got pretty good at fishing.” Willie says, looking at the  iridium Catfish in your stand. “You deserve it.”

You get really happy that you can use this prize to buy a Stardrop. Rasmodius showed up someday saying how this magical fruit would help you in your missions and you even found a book in the woods that talked a bit about it. Weird thing is that no one else seemed interested in that, not even all those curious tourists. But nothing surprised you anymore.

You bought the fruit and as you ate it, you felt your whole body shiver and your mind fill with good thoughts. It was, as if, for a moment, everything was nice and perfect.

It didn’t last long as you felt your arm  being held by Abigail. She seemed a bit ferocious.

“H… hi.” you greeted.

“Why haven’t you been spending time with us anymore?” she asked  with anger in her tone.

“I… I have been very busy…” you stutter.

“Bullshit! I saw you hanging out with Haley .”

“ Sh … she asked me to help her with some clothes she wanted to donate, I wouldn’t say no.” you reply  feeling tense about her grip on your arm.

“What? Now that you are dating Alex you are too good for us?” she asks you and you hear her voice crack a bit.

“I am not dating Alex.”

Abigail lets go of your arm and stares at you, confused.

“Alex hasn’t talked to me since  the end of summer.” You say, rubbing the place she was holding.

“You need to say that to Sebastian.” She  says, gulping her breath. "Please y/n. I just want things to go back to normal… at least as normal as they can be.”

You sigh, feeling shaken by this sudden request. Actually, all of this situation seems just too much for your emotional.

“Sebastian keeps pushing me away, then he comes and doesn’t tell me a thing. And then the two of you are dating… and now this?! Come on, what the fuck?!” you quickly say as your breath starts to get heavy.

Abigail looks down, there are tears  streaming in her eyes.

“I messed up. We messed up, all of us.” She says trying to clean them up. “Sam is so mad at me and Sebastian he doesn’t even look at us.”

You sigh and turn around.

“Let's go to my house, then can you explain things to me?” you ask, trying to calm down.

She nods and follows you to your cottage, where you sit with a cup of coffee  and some pumpkin snacks.

“Sebastian has always liked me, you know? Since we were teens, he always asked me to date him, but I always said no.” she looked at the roof as if trying to avoid tears. “I hooked up with him, because… because it was nice, we were like friends with benefits. I didn’t want to compromise, even though I liked having him with me.”

You stare at your cup, uncomfortably.

“And then you came around and… he started changing. I had never seen he act like he acts with you before, not even with me. I got… jealous… worried. I didn’t want to lose Sebastian.” Abigail cleans her face with a napkin you hand to her. “ So I told him I wanted to date and… and he accepted it. I thought he would be really happy. But I knew he didn’t like me anymore. Not the way he used to. Sam said things would end up badly if we kept playing with  each others feelings. But we ignored him...”

Abigail rests her face on her hands and cries for a moment. You let it happen while  focusing on the smoke coming from the coffee.

“Then you kissed Alex that day, he just couldn’t stand it… ” Abigail puts one hand on top of yours, calling your attention to her redden face. “I haven’t seen  Seb since then, y/n! He doesn’t talk to me,  Maru doesn’t let me check on his room, and… Sam isn’t going after him, so he must be very lonely right now.”

“I… I don’t know what to do Abby.” You  reply, with a sigh. “What can I do?”

“Talk to him, please. I accept that I lost his love, but I can’t bare losing any of you as my friends… and yes, this includes you.” 

You look at her hand on top of yours,  feeling very unsure about how to proceed. But  in a sudden moment you have the view of the little black  Junimo cathartically staring at nothing as Sebastian lies on his be d.

No matter what, you don’t want him like that.

“I… will try to talk to him tomorrow.” You mutter.

Abigail runs around the table and hugs you in  gratitude.


	23. Chapter 23

“Y/n?” Robin  opens up a smile as she sees you come in. “I am glad you showed up!”

“Hello… can… Can I speak to Sebastian?” you promptly ask, closing up your new umbrella and taking off your boots.

She nods with an worried expression.

“If you can get him to attend you.” Robin says, guiding you to  the basement stairs.

She leaves you by the door, in which you know a few times, but it is irresponsive.  You wait for a while and knock again, but nothing comes from the other side besides silence. 

You take a deep breath and  knock a third time.

“Leave me the fuck alone.” Sebastian’s voice comes from the other side. It's weak and husky.

You knock again, this time harder.

“Go away!” he insists, but this only makes you  knock even more, without a break.

You are almost punching the door when it suddenly opens and you feel an intense smell, mixed of weed, cigar and sweat.

“ Maru , I swear to  Yoba …!!” Sebastian gags on his own words when he sees you standing  by the door.

He is wearing only a hoodie and underwear . The hoodie is covered in snacks stains. His hair is a complete mess and the dark circles around his eyes are intense.

He stares at you for a brief moment, then to himself as if he has suddenly  become self-conscious and tries to shut the door, but you hold it open with your fist.

“Go away…” he says, trying to force the door shut against you, his voice cracking.

“Talk to me!” you reply, trying to force it open.

Sebastian looks anxiously  to the inside of his room, and shakes his head, putting even more effort to try to shut you outside, but you  squeeze yourself in and he ends up shutting both of you inside by accident.

You look around and the room is a complete mess.  Snacks packages and comics are scattered around the floor and his clothes are all unfolde d, hanging everywhere. You hear the sound of old  emo rock coming from his computer, which he hurries to shut off.

He then stares at you, his face blushed, not even knowing what to cover with his hands: his face, the stains on his hoodie or his underwear.

“Let… let me at least put some pants on?” he stutters, letting go a cough right after.

“Go take a shower.” You reply while looking around in worry.

“I… I…” he mutters .

But you open up his closet door and toss him a towel and the cleanest clothes you can find, then you open up the door. He looks at you as if he is about to protest, but just puts his head down and walks awkwardly in the direction of the bathroom.

You grab a plastic bag from one of the  snacks and start picking up the trash from around the room and piling up the comics scattered on a table. By the time Sebastian comes back , his hair still dripping water, you got to clean up most of the room and let the smells fade away through the open door.

He gets inside and shuts the door, leaning against it while still looking at the floor, the towel hanging on his neck over the new, cleaner hoodie.

“What… what are you doing here?” he asks and his voice is so low.

“Come sit with me.” You reply, sitting on his bed and  patting the cushion by your side.

He walks slowly towards you and sits  a bit far from you.

“I didn’t want you to see this mess.” He whispers , pulling the towel to his head to dry his hair. “The mess I am…”

“Are you kidding? My room in the city was three times worse than this.” You reply with a chuckle.

Sebastian looks at you from the corner of his eye,  his expression softens a bit to see you smile, but quickly turns back into a frown.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have better things to do?” he says, looking at the other side. “ Save the city? Fight a witch? Hang out with your boyfriend?”

“I do. ” You reply, angrily. “I have A LOT of things to do, but I am here! ”

“Go the fuck away, then.”

“ You… you arrogant shitty boy.” You yell as you get up to your feet , making him look at you in surprise. “ I AM HERE! I am here because I care a lot about you. Stop pushing me away and talk to me!” 

Sebastian stares at you for a while then looks to the other side. You can see him sob as you lean over him and hug his head against your chest.

“I am here to listen, please, talk to me.” You whisper as you feel him  revolve your waist with his arms and start crying.

You slowly kneel on the bed and sit as Sebastian crawls to the comfort of your body .  He completely lies onto you and you run you fingers through his head for a long while until he stops crying.

“Sorry.” He says, cleaning his face and sitting straight. “I don’t know what gave me…”

You shake your head and gently clean up a tear on his cheek.

“It does feel better, doesn’t it?” you ask.

He nods and sighs.

“It is… difficult to me… speaking about things.” He starts by saying. “I always let things get stuck in here.” He puts his hand over his throat. “But…”

Sebastian stands up and walks to his desk , taking lots of sheets of paper. He comes back while seemingly trying to organize them.

He gives them to you and it is all written there. There are many letters for Abigail, some really sweet telling how he feels about her, some bitter telling about how her actions were hurting him. There were letters for Sam, thanking him for being such a good friend and apologizing for not always being able to show affection back. There were letters for Robin, some really heavy ones, saying that he didn’t feel like a part of her life anymore, explaining how left out he felt from that family. Some were apologetic, where he compared himself to Maru, he apologized for bot being a good child, for still being a lot of work and reason of worry to her.

There was a letter for Maru, saying that, although he resented her and Demetrius, he didn’t hate them. He just wanted to be respected and to not feel like a disappointment.

Then…

There was a letter adressed to you.

“I love you. First I loved you as the silly kid I was, but now I know that the man in me wants to be with you just as much. I can’t believe I lost you just when you were in reach of my touch. I can’t believe I fucked up things with you, too. You were the one person I thought I could do right by.”

You separate this letter from the others as Sebastian looks at you, his shoulders  shrunk in embarrassment.

“You have been the first person to bring the best in me. Is it fair that I don’t think I am a good person and I still want to be with you so much? Because you are the best person I've ever met. 

I can’t stand the thought  of losing you…”

You put the paper aside with the others and jump to his arms so suddenly  Sebastian falls on his back on the mattress,  barely having time to react to the kiss you lay on his lips. His eyes get wide open in surprise but he slowly closes them the more time you rest his lips on his.

He hugs your waist tight as you involve his shoulders with your arms and for a long time you exchange a passionate kiss.

“I don’t get it.” he whispers as you  unlock your lips. “You and Alex…”

“Alex is my friend. I love you.” you whisper back at him.

The two of you kiss again. Sebastian sits just to take the papers out of bed and gets on top of you. You can feel that the two of you are about to start something.

The door opens up suddenly and  you roll from under him, falling on the floor. Sebastian tosses himself  on the bed, his face on the pillow and lets go a yell muffled by it.

“If I knew things were so fine, I wouldn’t have bothered.” Sam says in a bitter tone.

He is holding snacks and his videogame console, but turns around enraged and stomps away. Sebastian stands up  anguished looking at you for support, so you put the papers in his hand and whisper for him to go.

You see him run after Sam and stand up, tiding yourself, noticing that  Sebastian had already opened your pants. You blush, quickly closing it  and covering it with the big coat Haley had given you.

When you go outside, Sebastian is very uncomfortably being hugged by Sam, who is crying  holding the letters addressed to him.

“You are my best bro!! ” he says while  weeping.

You giggle as Sebastian pats his back looking both happy and  embarrassed.


	24. Chapter 24

As Abigail and Sebastian hug, you try to look at the other side not to be inconvenient, but Abigail reaches to you and pulls you into the hug. Sam jumps onto the three of you and you suddenly see yourself stuck in a very tight group hug.

Neither you nor Sebastian are comfortable with this, but you stare at each other with a funny look.

“I am happy we are back together.” She says, cleaning  up a tear on her face. “And I am happy for the two of you.”

You and Sebastian look at opposite sides, not really knowing what to say. Actually, that kiss that day was all that happened, you had just gotten back to seeing each other as regularly as before.

The things between you had a different color, but neither of you had any courage to direct the subject.

Also… Sebastian was not doing so well yet. It was difficult to take him off his house. Sam was more successful on that then you and Abigail, still, he seemed to prefer to stay in his basement. He was getting a bit thinner, a bit  paler .

You watched them rehearsing  together. Sam had came out with this idea of becoming a band and they were actually pretty good. Sebastian looked amused when playing the keyboard.

“What will  you be this  Spirit's Eve?” Abigail excitedly asked  while you were taking her to her house.

“ Frankenstein . The doctor, not the monster.” Sam replied, seeming as excited as her.

“I think I will go as a witch! Or a sorceress!” She said.

“I'm too old for this.” Sebastian said while shrugging.

“ Nobody is to old for Spirit's Eve,  Seb .” Sam replied. “Right y/n? What will you go as?!”

‘I… I have a skull mask I got on the  adventurer's guild.” You ponder as they stare at you in confusion.

“On the what?” Sam asks.

“I mean… in the city.” You say and Sebastian chuckles on how easily Sam seems to believe in you.

“See  Seb ?! Y/n will dress up too! You need to match. Wear that vampire costume!” Sam says while poking his ribs.

Sebastian steps away from Sam.

“I don’t know… I don’t even know If I feel like going.”

The three of you exchange looks of concern as Sebastian steps away to light up his  sixth cigarette since he arrived earlier that afternoon. He was clearly not doing ok.

“Talk to him…” Abigail whispers to you, and you nod.

When Sam gets in his house, you notice Sebastian stops by the door, looking aside, seemingly lost in thoughts. You take his hand on yours, calling his attention to you.

“Let’s go?” you ask.

“I came by bike…” he whispers to you and you turn to see the motorcycle parked not far from the house.

You step away from him and notice that he is about to light up another cigarette, while walking towards the vehicle without saying anything to you. You see him sit down and put on the helmet, very slowly.

Sebastian almost jumps in place when you suddenly sit on the backseat and take the helmet from his hand, putting it on your head. You lock it as tight as you can, feeling your whole body shake in fear as you pass your arms around his waist.

He stares at you, startled.

“Ok, t… take me home.”  You stutter .

“Aren’t you afraid of motorcycles?” he asks while picking up the other helmet  for himself.

“You said you would keep me safe.”

Midway putting the helmet he looks at you. You are sure he can feel your body shaking against his, and maybe it can make him annoyed, but he can’t be as annoyed as you are, thinking that he might have come by bike to avoid you.

“Hey… can I take you somewhere first?” he whispers, putting the helmet on his lap. “It is a bit far, but I promise it is worth it.”

You press your lips together in  fear, but you shake your head in consent. Sebastian puts on his helmet and, before starting the engines, he pulls your feet to the right place  in the bike, then pulls  your arms from his waist to closer to his chest. You feel his heartbeat as  he ignites the motorcycle and you go .

He takes you past the town, through the bus stop  path , in a long non  pavement road. You slowly stop shaking, as  the movement of his body to guide the bike starts giving you confidence. 

After a while the light from his bike is the only source of light besides the starry sky,  and even then, you feel safe.

You see the lights from  Zuzu comes up in the horizon when Sebastian stops near a cliff.  He waits for you to come down and hops off the motorcycl e, leaning on you to take your helmet off.  He tides your hair gently while looking deep in your eyes.

You look back at him while he takes your hand and the two of you go towards the cliff and sit down near the edge.

“I always come here to think…  it is very silent, unlike my house.” He says while looking at the city in the distance.

He turns to you and notices you are staring at him.

“I always thought of getting a job and moving to  Zuzu . To run away from the life I hated here.” He says while reaching to his jacket pocket to get his cigarettes.

As he can’t find it, he turns to you.

“Give me that back.” He says, annoyed.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” You say barely hiding a smile.

“Don’t make me turn you upside down to get those back.” He threatens with a smirk.

“Ha, as if.” You reply.

Sebastian leans on you and starts tapping your pockets in search of his pack of cigarettes. At first you offer resistance, just slightly, knowing you could easily push him away from you. You stop when he starts grabbing parts completely unrelated to his search and his face starts coming closer to yours.

You let Sebastian kiss you  while rubbing his cold hands on the skin under your coat and shirt.  You feel your body shiver when one of them  get inside your lower clothes, uncensored. 

He stops suddenly and  sighs.

“Seriously, where are them?” he asks, getting on his knees.

“I tossed them away on the road.” You reply while sitting down.

Sebastian grunts while rolling his eyes and sitting next to you .

“Sorry.” He says  helping you organize your clothes. “I went to o  far. ”

You shake your head, while letting him tap your back to take off the dust.

“ You would have let me?” he asks with a smirk.

You shrug with a naughty smile and Sebastian grasps you from your waist, pulling you towards him in a hug . He gets you to sit between his legs and the two of you spend some time looking at the city in the horizon.

“ Don’t ever steal my cigarettes again.” He says after a while.

“Or what? You will attack me like that? It isn’t much of a threat.” You reply with a  chuckle. “Why are you smoking so much anyway?”

Sebastian sighs and you feel his grip loose around you.

“I… I feel so lost.” He whispers, his eyes  far in the horizon. “I don’t know what to do with myself anymore.”

You look up at his face, he seems about to cry, so you turn your body and sit in front of him.

“I have always been driven to the city, but now I don’t… I don’t fe el l ike leaving anymore. ” He says whine sighing. “It feels as if everything I ever wanted was completely fake. I don’t know who I am anymore. ”

You take his hand onto yours and he puts it on your face.

“ Don’t  get me wrong. I am happy that I get to be with you but…”

“ Seb , did you really think that simply  finding love  and being corresponded would get you away of such a heavy depression?” you ask while  stroking his hand gently.

He stares at you,  concerned.

“It is not about Abigail or about me… it is not even about your family or this valley.” You move towards him. “You have so much  self-hatred . I don’t know why, because I think you are so great.”

Sebastian sobs as you take his head close to your chest and stroke his head.

“Let’s get you some help, shall we?” you whisper by his ear then kiss his forehead. “Then you can feel better… then we can be together and… happy.”

He hugs you and starts crying as you caress his head gently.

“I love you.” He stutters .

“I love you.” You reply with some kisses. “You'll get better , I promise.”

He nods and hugs you tight.


	25. Chapter 25

“Medicine?” Abigail whispers at you as you nod.

“His serotonin was in very, very low levels.”  You reply  as you share a piece of pumpkin pie. “ He will be a bit off while  his body adapts so… You and Sam need to be patient to him.”

She nods and looks  at Sebastian distractedly admiring  the skeleton monsters in the cage display.

“I wish I had noticed…” Abigail sobs. “And I made things worse…”

“It's not like that Abby.” You reply. “You have your problems too… we… we are all a bit in need of some help.” As you say it, you look around to see each  Junimo that follows the people from the town. Even Abigail has a purple one on her shoulder.

“How are you so wise?” she says with a smile.

You shake your head and  smile.

“They forced me into it.” You stare at her  Junimo that seems to be chuckling. “But… but it was good.”

She doesn’t seem to understand, but smiles to you anyway and agrees. She stops her fork midway and stares behind you with a worried expression.

When you turn around, Haley is behind you, staring with a sharp look. She is holding Alex by the back of his neck. He seems scared and embarrassed.

“Hey! May I borrow Abigail for a second?” Haley asks, practically  yeeting Abigail  f rom the chair and  tossing Alex into it.

“Wait but…”Abigail says, but Haley wraps her arms on her own and  drags her away.

You and Alex stare at each other clumsily as he tries to sit straight in the chair. 

“So… how are you doing?” he asks  looking aside as if he is about to runaway.

“Fine. And you?” you reply  with a smirk.

“Fine. Fine too…”

The two of you fall in silence again. You look aside to see Sebastian staring worriedly while Abigail and Haley hold him back. Abigail seems to explain to him what is happening,  but he still looks insecure.

“So… you and him, right?” Alex asks, a bit bitterly. “ I guess… I knew it all along.”

“ I didn’t.” You reply with a shrug. “I just realized when you kissed me.”

“Oh, so it's my fault? Damn it! I shouldn’t have.” He says with a frown, but chuckleS right after.

You lay your hand on top of his and look at him tenderly.

“I understand if you still need some time. But you are my friend and I miss you.” You say while smiling at him. “It hurts me that you may be mad at me.”

Alex laughs and puts his hand on top of yours, shaking his head.

“What right do I have to be mad at you?” he says while  caressing your hand. “I am a bit sad, but I am always glad to have you around.”

He laughs again.

“Sorry that I  spent this much time without talking to you.”

You nod and the both of you stand up and hug.

“Ex… excuse me.” Sebastian's voice calls your attention, as he  takes you by the arm as soon as Alex stops hugging you.

He doesn’t hold strongly or pulls you, but his hand rests on your forearm as he looks down with a frown.

“I want to go home.” He whispers at you.

“ Don’t worry. I know y/n is yours.” Alex says with a chuckle. “I am a good loser.”

“Y/n is not mine…” Sebastian stutters, and his eyes slowly turn to Alex. “I… I understand that you are friends,  and that you are… you are not the guy I judge you to be. I… I just really need some time to deal with these…”

You stare at Sebastian seeing the effort he is making to speak.

“...These feelings I get when I see the two of you together…” he finishes puffing almost seeming he has just finished a race.

“Got it.” Alex nods. “You are also not the guy I judge you to be.”

Alex extends his hand towards Sebastian.

“Peace?” he asks.

Sebastian looks at you before  taking his hand and, much to his surprise, Alex pulls him for a hug. This gets him  disoriented for a while.

“I am going to take  Seb home. See you!” you say, and Alex smiles at you and nods.

You are halfway out of town when Sebastian asks:

“Actually, can we go to your house instead?”

You nod at him and he hugs you from  your shoulder to cozy up from the low temperature of the night. You pass your hand around his waist.

Dog hops and wags his tail, happily greeting you as you arrive and Sebastian sits on the floor a while cuddling up to him while you turn on the heat system and go to the kitchen to make some tea for the both of you. He seems very away, but you know this is  an effect from the medicine.

You bring back the cup of tea and sit next to him while he drinks, petting Dog. As he sips the tea, he slowly starts sobbing and you get closer and hug him. He puts the tea on the floor and starts crying, hiding his face on his hands. You stroke his hair and kiss his cheeks while he does so.

“So… sorry.” He says after a while.

“It’s ok.” You  whisper . “I'm here. It's  gonna be ok.”

You take the cup of tea back to the kitchen and help Sebastian stand up, pulling him to the bedroom and sitting him on bed. 

“I don’t  wanna lose you.” He says, looking up at you.

“You won’t.” You whisper while  kneeling to take his shoes off.

“I… I feel like I will.” He sobs.  “I feel like I don’t deserve you. Like you will be better off without me. I feel like everyone will be better off without me…”

You sit next to him and squeeze his hand on yours.

“Have you talked to your therapist about this?” you ask.

He shakes his head.

“It’s so hard…” Sebastian sobs.

You stand from the bed and go to your wardrobe, picking up some paper, a pen and a book for  Sebastian to support it. You put it in his hands and he starts writing his feelings.  You stroke his head and clean the tears that come down his face while he does so.

When he finishes, you pick  those things and leave them on the table, near his jacket. You get back to bed and  lower Sebastian so he lies down, and lie on top of him, your head on his chest. He hugs you and pulls the  blankets over you.

“I love you.” You softly say. “I want you to be around.”

He hugs you tight.

“ I want to be around you.” You continue. “ I want to see you heal and I want us to be happy together.”

He sobs and nods.

“And you are good. You really are.” You whisper, crawling up his body to reach his lips.

You kiss him and he kisses you back and you feel how he struggles with those words and that makes you tear up a bit. You kind of know how he feels , but the valley has saved you, it has shown you otherwise… and now you want to help Sebastian  feel the same.

“I love you.” He whispers at you.

“I love you.” You whisper back as you cuddle up together.


	26. Chapter 26

Winter slowly goes by  with its freezing temperatures and  low pace.

You spend most of your time fishing, mining and taking care of the animals.  You have now a full coop and a barn with two cows, a sheep, a goat and a baby pig Shane has just brought you.

“Good that you put some heaters here. They will continue giving you good quality  produce with this.” He says with a smile.

He looks nice, a bit more tide up and  happy, his posture has changed, he is not looking  so  much at the ground anymore.

“How are your chickens going?” you ask happily.

“I will bring you some eggs. They are producing a lot!” he excitedly says.

“Nice! The blue ones are specially tasty!” you reply.

“How is the boyfriend going?” he asks shaking his eyebrows and making you blush.

“ He is… better. Not 100% but he is getting there.” You reply while scratching the back of your head.

“Days and days right?” Shane says, and you are sure he knows what he is talking about.

“Uncle Shane! Let's go!!! We need to get early on the market!” you hear Jas calling on the outside.

The both of you chuckle and he shrugs pointing outsid e, indicating that he needs to go. You wave goodbye as Jas excitedly pulls him by the sleeves.

You finish brushing your cows and get inside, where Sebastian is leaning beside his computer . The screen is open in a complicated sequence of codes, there is coffee beside him, but he is fast  asleep.

You gently  scratch his head and he opens his eyes slowly, moaning something and sitting straight.

“Go to bed, Seb.” You say while picking the many cups he has left on the table.

“No, no… I, I have to finish this. Hey, let me wash those , babe .” He mumbles with a tired voice.

“Did you sleep? Like, at all?” you ask while avoiding that he takes the cups away from you.

He shakes his head.

“I had a nightmare and… just went for a walk… stop, I don’t want you to have to clean after me on your own house.”

“You are working.” You say, dodging him when he stands up  to try to take the cups.

“So were you!”

“But I slept  well  las t night, like a baby.”

“Yeah, I saw you  moaning a bit. It was kind of cute.”

Sebastian grabs your wrists and gets to take half of the cups from your hand, but as you try to take them back, he  pushes his body against yours and pins you on the wall  beside the table. You gasp surprised by how strongly he does so.

He smiles naughtily at you and you blush as he  licks the tip of your frosty nose with his hot tongue.

“So… so the works out with Sam and Alex are  getting results…” you stutter while slowly putting the cups on the table.

“You know what else besides  sports increase serotonin?” he whispers at your ear.

“Wha… what?” you reply feeling  his body press against yours.

“Sex.”

Sebastian picks you up by the  waist and drags you to de bedroom while you giggle .

…

You are  carrying  wood back to the farm when a pair of hands  grasps you from behind and a piece of fabric is put on your face. You try to struggle, but another pair of hands pin you down on the floor and  you feel the world go dizzy.

Next thing you know,  you know you feel much cold and  the air leaving your lungs. You see water and someone jump in it and reach for you. 

It is Linus, extending his hands towards you, but you  can’t reach back, as yours are tied  down. He gets to you and  quickly swims back to the whole he came from, but it seems to be frozen again.

You feel yourself slip away just as you are both involved by a strong green light  and next thing you see, Rasmodius is putting a cloak over your  shoulders

He moves his hands again and cast a spell and you are  suddenly right in front of Harvey's clinic, much to the surprise of Caroline and Jodi who are just passing by.

Caroline takes one look at Rasmodius and  gasps, getting completely pale. He also pales up and quickly disappears with a spell.  They hurry to take you and Linus to the clinic.

Harvey and Maru  treat your frost burns and  heat you appropriately.

“What happened to you?” Harvey ask after you are less in shock.

“I… I don’t know.” You reply, your jaws still shaking a bit. “I woke up I was under water and…”

You tun to Linus and smile as he gently smiles back to you.

“You saved me, thanks.” You whisper in gratitude.

He shakes his head  in reply.

“I saw them.” He says. “The  JojaMmart employees  tossing you in the water.”

Maru and Harvey turn to him  and gasp.

“This… this is a very serious accusation you are making, Linus.” Harvey says while scratching his chin. “Why would they do that to y/n?”

Sebastian shows up  in a hurry, almost tripping on the door,  hugging you tight as soon as he can reach you.  You hug him back, feeling things calm down in your heart.

“I found this in your mail box.” He says handing you a piece of paper with a typed note:

“ I know what you are doing in the community center. Stop or else you will never see the ones you love again. ”

You look up at him . He seems desperately worried and this messes with something in you.  You take him by the cheeks and gently kiss his lips, then you quickly stand up, storming out of the  hospital, in direction of  Joja Mart, ignoring Harvey's screams  for you to come back.

You practically kick the door open . Shane and Sam are there, working. They turn to you confused and stop what they are doing. Morris opens up a smile when he sees you.

“Welcome to Joja…” he starts.

You grab him by the collar  much to everyone's surprise, and pull him to the balcony.

“You can throw me on a freezing lake, but DON’T YOU DARE threaten the people I love!” you growl at him.

“I… I don’t k now what you are talking about." He says with an awkward smile.

Sam tosses his broom aside and walk towards you, pulling you back just as Sebastian enters the  store.

Morris slowly cleans up his clothes.

“You see, I really don’t know what you are talking about.” He says while joining his hands and giving you a smirk. “But Joja Mart is an important business for this town. You wouldn’t want  people's lives ruined because someone decided to play ‘town hero'. ”

Your eyes go from Sam to Shane  quickly and then to Morris and his ironical smile. You feel your heart fill with worry and rage. You are really close to completing the bundles for the  Junimos , it feels like the right thing to do, but  what will be of them if the  Comunnity Center causes  Joja Mart to close?

This damn corporation, you've always hated it.

Then you see Morris look turning to Sebastian , this enrages you.

“The pier is a bit of a dangerous place to hang out alone… also the train trails… and the mine side of the mountain lake.” Morris quietly says while adjusting his tie. “Living in a basement is dangerous... what if the house burns down?”

“I will FUCKING chase you out of this town!”  you yell while Sebastian and Sam hold you for you not to advance on him.

The two of them take you out of the  Joja Mart and Sebastian hugs you until you calm down.

“So… I could use some explaining.” Sam says, a bit scared over suddenly seeing you so angry.

As you are to altered to say anything, Sebastian starts explaining everything to him, from the very beginning when you first met the  Junimos . Shane shows up in the middle of the story and quietly  listens, he seems to be connecting things to the times you talked to him about those things.

“Buh… just do it. This isn’t even a good job anyway.” He says, shrugging.

“ I am pretty sure I can get another job.” Sam says. “And my father is coming back soon, it will be fine if I go some time unemployed. I will have more time to work on our songs.”

“I can always help Mernie with the chickens.”  Shane says. “I actually have been thinking about selling eggs in the city when I go to the therapy sessions.”

“Are you all nuts?! Y/n's life is in danger! ” Sebastian rampages, pulling you by your shoulders. “You have to stop, you don’t want this kind of people to be your enemy.”

“This is all I am here for, Seb." You reply, looking at the Junimos that follow  each of them. “If… if not, what was the purpose of all I have done until now?”

“All you are here for…” he repeats with annoyance. “Right.”

“No, I didn’t mean it this way…”

Before you can work on any explanation, Sebastian stomps away .

“Seb!” you yell  an try to go after him.

Sam and Shane exchange a glance and the later one shrugs, getting back inside , back to his shift. Sam takes off his cap and scratches his head with a  sigh.


	27. Chapter 27

There you are, knocking on Sebastian's door, insistently.

“Please open up. Let's talk!”

“Just go do your magical things and leave me be.”

Demetrius, Maru and Robin look at you from the  top of the stairs , curious and worried.

“ Y/n, you should be in the hospital right now.” Maru says again, but you ignore and keep knocking at the doo r.

“Oh, no need for that. Pretty sure  the Wizard have some potions for y/n.” Sebastian’s voice comes bitter from the other side of the door. “STOP KNOCKING! You are giving me a headache!”

You knock even harder.

“ Go finish your bundles! Pretty sure the Junimos will let you go away when you do so.”  He yells back at you.

“What is this boy talking about?” Demetrius  whispers at Robin, and she shrugs.

“You think I want to go away?! After everything, you think that of me?!”  you scream at him, while punching the door. “Or do you WANT me to go away?”

“Yeah, right now I want you to go away!”

You stop knocking and sob. But just as you do so, Maru  comes from your side, pulls the door knob and pushes it, like a trick, and this bursts the door open. She storms in and pulls Sebastian out of bed.

“What the fuck?” he asks trying to make her let go of him.

“The person you say you love has JUST came from a frozen lake and declared war on a dangerous corporation. It is not time for your self-doubt, you should be there supporting y/n!” she says, practically tossing him in front of you.

Sebastian trips on his way and you support him so he doesn’t fall. When he sees your face wet in tears,  he immediately changes his  apathy expressi on to care. He involve s you with his arms and hugs you tight.

“I am just worried, I am sorry.” He whispers as the both of you sob. “I don’t w ant to lose you.”

“So stop pushing me away.” You hug him back.

“Sorry. I'm really sorry.”

Maru climbs up the stairs, pulling her mother and father away with her to give you some privacy.

Sebastian pulls you inside his room and you sit on his  bed.

“Ok, if you are doing this, I am by your side… but… what then?” he says while caressing your hand. “What will you do after you accomplish the mission the valley gave you?” He keeps his head down. “What will be of us?”

You put your hand under Sebastian's chin and gently  have him raise his head to look at you. In your other hand, by its  delicate silver cord,  you hold a blue seashell with a soft smile in  your face.

Sebastian opens up his mouth in awe, but is unable to blab more than a few “I…” , his eyes glimmering.

“How about this?” you quietly ask  while putting the shell necklace around his neck. 

He takes it from over his chest and keeps staring at it, as if hypnotized , he glances from it to you, still to o  shocked to say anything.

“I… We… we're getting married!” he suddenly exclaims, jumping off the bed and pulling you along. “We're getting married!!”

He kisses you many times , hugs you, stops and gets back to kissing you. You hug him back and when you notice, he is pulling you outside  by the hand.

“We're getting married!” he yells  to Robin, who stares at him, jaw dropped.

“Are you?” she asks turning to you , surprised.

Sebastian shows her the blue seashell and she gasps and  lets go an excited screech. Maru and Demetrius show up , also excitedly congratulating you.

You look at Sebastian's happy face and you are sure  of how much you love him. After a little  commotion , he  takes you to  the farm  in his motorcycle.

As  soon as you get there,  he takes you to the room, bridal  style.

“ … then I will take you in my  motorcycle and we let them party as we travel to our  honeymoon.” Sebastian says while stroking your head.

“Where do you want to go?” you ask him  while cuddling to his bare chest.

“ Anywhere with you is wonderful to me.” He whispers. “But maybe… to a place with lots of snow, we can go skiing, drink hot chocolate… warm each other up.”

You giggle as Sebastian pulls you even tighter against his body . He presses one of you butt cheeks with an innocent smile.

“We'll be so happy together.” He whispers , leaning his forehead on yours.

“I already am.” You reply while kissing his lips.

…

The valley is on your side.

Once Morris minions try to kidnap Sebastian on the train tracks, but a train comically shows up right when they are about to get him tossing them away like in a cartoon.

“I thought they were dead, but they had just passed out.”

“Happened to me.” You reply while putting on him a belt with a sword attached. “But better safe  than sorry.”

“I don’t really know how to use this...” he says, taking it from the  sheath and swinging it clumsily.

“I will teach you, but …” you look at the  Junimo on his shoulder. “Something tells me you won’t be needing it.”

There was this other time when you were in the mines and they came after you, but ended up trapped by lots of monsters  while you escaped using  Q.Is secret elevators. 

Sebastian kept describing the funny things that happened  to them every time they came after him: attacked by bees, tripped and fell in the water, a bear attack. The same kept happening to you.

He was living with you by now, although you agreed to marry  by the end of spring, after you completed the community center bundles.

“Seb, I am going… Seb?” You say while  putting on your boots to get to work.

You turn to him , worried that he didn’t even mutter in response. It is normal for Sebastian to sleep  while you are working, but he always makes an effort to wish you a good day. 

You get in the bedroom and he is sweating under the sheets. You touch his forehead and he is burning in fever.

“Seb. Seb, wake up, let's take you to the doctor.”

“I'll be fine...” he whispers back at you, with difficulty, but you shake your head and start pulling him out of bed.

You get Sebastian to hop on the horse in front of you, and you guide quickly to town .

“Good that you brought him.” Harvey says. “ He has a pneumonia…”

You gasp in horror as the doctor guides you out of the room.

“He needs to stop smoking, y/n.  It is really aggravated by his lungs conditions.”

You nod  with tears in your eyes. 

Sebastian spends the next week  interned in the hospital. You are lucky Harvey lets you sleep over  to keep him company. He is  more pale then ever, barely speaks to you  between the times he is asleep.

You spend the nights watching over him, stroking his hair and pondering if you should start praying to Yoba for him to recover. You even ask the Junimos for help.

Abigail and Sam come to visit, so do Robin and they have to force you  to go have lunch and  dinner. Harvey even gives you some medication to  calm down the nerves.

After a week, you wake up to Sebastian seated on bed, eating  some hospital soup. His cheeks are a bit  more c olored, he seems better as he turns to you and smile s.

You run to him and hug him, crying out of relief.

“I ’m sorry. I didn’t want you to  wor ry you like that.” He says  while holding your hand. 

“I am… I am just happy you are ok.” You sob, leaning your head on his lap.

“I promise I will quit smoking. I don’t want to die on you. We still have a lot to do together.” he strokes your hair and pulls your hand for a kiss. 


	28. Chapter 28

You wipe a tear from your eye as the Junimos jump around yelling “gu bie" at you. You have completed the bundles. 

The magic still impresses you when the Community Center is suddenly completely restored. 

“I can’t believe it!” Lewis says as he enters the room, emotional, tears coming to his eyes. 

In some hours everyone is coming in to see what has happened. You see Jodi and Caroline taking Evelyn to the crafts room where they laugh and start wondering about knitting projects. Elliott and Leah follow after, explaining to Jas and Vincent things about arts and its making. The kids run around curious and excited. 

Clint goes to the forge, seeming to really appreciate the potentials of the equipment there. Abigail finds a nice place and starts playing her flute, while Emily, Haley and Alex sit by the kitchen to listen. Sam is outside excitedly doing skateboard tricks on the side courtyard. George watches him while drinking some tea. Shane wonders around with a smile. 

Sebastian comes to you with a proud smile. 

“You did it!” he says, holding your face and kissing your forehead. “I am proud.” 

“I will miss those damn Junimos.” You emotionally say while hugging him. 

You hear a slow clap coming from the outside and everyone turn to see what is happening. Morris come inside followed by two big guys, one of them is casually holding a piece of wood. 

“So, you did it.” He says mixing a smile with a frown. 

“Yes. You better get the fuck out, right now.” Sebastian says to him, landing his hand on the sword you make him carry around. 

You also put your hand in the handle of your sword. 

“It is fine…” he says, looking around. “I will just launch a promotion. 75% off, my costumers will be back. Also… this place doesn’t seem to attend fire safety protocols… it would be a shame if…” 

“Get the hell out of here.” Sam suddenly shows up and says, tossing his Joja mart cap at him. “Also, I quit!” 

Morris stare at him, irritated, as he stands next to Sebastian and you. 

“Buh… I quit too. But I am keeping the jacket.” Shane says while standing on your other side and smiling at you. 

“I can get new employees!” Morris shouts. 

“I wanna see you get new costumers.” Abigail says, getting in the line with you. “Nobody wants you here anymore, even more after what you did to y/n!!” 

Morris makes a sign to his henchmen and they slowly advance in a threatening manner. 

“Is there any problems here?” Alex asks joining you with his fist pressed against his palm, making sure to show off his muscles. 

“I was cuttings some tomatoes for our sandwiches and heard a commotion.” Haley says, showing up with a big knife in her hand. “What is going on?” 

The henchmen look at you, intimidated as you also pull your Galaxy sword from your belt and smirk at them. They step back. 

“Come on you cowards! Do your job!” Morris shouts. 

He turns around as Pierre shows up and poke him on the shoulder. Next thing you see, he gives him an impressive jab that sends him flying away from the community center. The henchmen follow after as Alex beats his foot on the ground as if about to advance on them. You all laugh. 

“You go dad!” Abigail says excitedly. 

“I hope he never shows up again.” Piere answers, shaking his hand in pain. 

“Nobody was buying anything from there since the lake incident, anyway.” Robin shows up and says. “But I am happy you are not in danger anymore.” She rubs Sebastian's and your head. 

People spend the rest of the day engaging in activities in the center, but Sebastian takes you away a bit earlier. 

You hop on his motorcycle and he drives you all the way to the city near cliff. You sit together and admire the lights. 

“Remember when we were kids and we met for the first time?” he asked while caressing your head. 

“Incredibly… I do. You were a very grumpy gingerbread boy.” You reply with a giggle. “I had to force you out of a tree trunk so you would come play with me and my cousins.” 

He chuckles. 

“I know it is cheesy but… the moment you touched my hand that day… I feel that in that moment I fell in love with you.” 

“Ah, come on, that is not true.” You giggle. “You feel in love with me when I beat you in our first run to the lake.” 

He laughs and starts tickling you and you tickle back, until the two of you are lying down side by side, looking deep into each other's eyes. 

“I love you. Thanks for coming around, for changing my life.” He say, tenderly. 

“You changed my life too. And I also love you.” 

Softly, you join your lips together in a kiss. 

THE END

… 

What now?! 

Witches adventures? 

Will you also complete the cinema bundle and you and Sebastian will adopt many frogs together? 

Are The Pelicans becoming famous and you are joining them for a worldwide tour? 

Will you take care of his chikens when Shane travels to administrate his worldly successful chain of blue eggs production?

Will you travel together to cheer on Alex when he becomes a professional and famous griball player? 

It is now up to you. 

Thank you for sticking around and being the hero of this story!! 


End file.
